Ancient Greek Democracy Sets Example for the Future.

The ancient Greek democracy set the foundation for democratic systems used in the world today. Nevertheless, it was quite a bit different than what is passed off as democracy.

It was more of a pure form of the political system. It really did involve the people of Greece in every decision that was made.

First, one should understand that each state in ancient Greece had its own government, which means the democracies in Greece varied 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 there.

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

Previously, ancient Greece was 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 who were or had been Greek citizens.

This meant the majority of the people in ancient Athens could not vote in the democracy.

Unlike what is called democracy of today that is seen in the United States, the Greeks 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 running the show.

This caused some tension, yet it was understood there would be some tension and thus provisions had been made in order to keep the tension at bay.

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 society had the desire to expand into an empire.

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 system. 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.

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 by transferring political power to the people.

USA in Full Reverse

Like the Ancient Greek Democracy the democracy in the US began as limited.

In this case it was male property owners that had rights and democracy was representative and not direct.

However, in contrast to Greece, money has bought control of power in the United States. A small elite group calls the shots today and only a fallacy.