The Ancient Greek Democracy Set the Tone For Democracies in the Future.

The ancient Greek democracy set the foundation for democratic systems used in the world today, but at the same time, it is quite a bit different than democracy of today because it was more of a pure form of the political system, which means it really did involve the people of Greece in every decisions that was made.

First, though, understand that each state in ancient Greece had its own government, which means the democracies in Greece did vary to a certain degree.

Athens had the most powerful democracy, and it is the best model to examine in order to fully understand the democratic system that was used.

While the ancient Greek democracy was pure in many forms, that purity was not complete, as not everyone was allowed to participate in the democracy.

In the past, ancient Greece had been ruled by the elite, meaning the more money someone had the more power they would have.

Democracy was introduced as a way to shift the power from the rich and create a system in which everyone had the same amount of power.

At the same time, the only people that were allowed to be involved in the process were people who were adult male citizens with a mother and father that were Greek citizens, so this meant the majority of the people in ancient Athens could not vote in the democracy.

Unlike the democracy of today that is seen in the United States, the ancient Greek democracy held meetings in which every person who was allowed to vote could participate and give speeches, and then cast a vote on legislation.

This was meant to completely balance the power, but there was some dissent by the wealthy as they were no longer the elite and they had to share their power.

This caused some tension, but at the same time, the ancient democracy understood there would be some tension and thus they made provisions in order to keep the tension at bay, and those provisions have been credited with preventing civil unrest on many different occasions.

The Fall of Democracy

The democracy in Athens was not a peaceful democracy, as it had the desire to expand.

In that respect, the pseudo democracy of the United States is much like the ancient Greek democracy, as it was not happy unless it conquered other areas.

It was that mentality that led to the collapse of the democracy, as Athens was eventually defeated by Sparta and democracy was taken away.

Power and Democracy

When the majority is given all of the power, there will be groups of people that are not protected under the law, and those groups of people have to fight for the rights they feel are lacking.

Democracy is not intended to serve everyone, and that is its downfall.

The ancient democracy in Greece was used as a way to get the wealthy out of power, but that could have been done by putting a government in place that would ensure the liberties of the people instead of giving all of the political power to the people.

Why Democracy Does Not Work

A democracy is based on the idea that the people should be in complete control. While it is true that people should be free, they should not be in control of their neighbor.

Everyone should have a sense of autonomy. Autonomy cannot be achieved as long as democracy is used.