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Athenian definition of democracy. Discuss the Athenian definition of democracy.
Is the city state the only kind of state in which true democracy can exist? ...
Athenian Democracy. Discuss the Athenian definition of democracy. Is the city
state the only kind of state in which true democracy can exist? ...
... a direct democracy, its democratic practice functioned solely within the boundaries
of the definition of voting eligibility, ie the belief that only Athenian ...
... defined and shaped the cornerstone of the Athenian democracy. ... for the belief in a
more masculine definition . ... cultures were equality, even democracy, were an ...
... democracy –certainly not the radical democracy – he dealt ... Athenian Political
Institutions Prior to Solon ... is proven by the method of definition of citizenship ...
Submitted by oppapers on April 15, 2003
Category: History Other
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Discuss the Athenian definition of democracy. Is the city state the only kind of state in which true democracy can exist? What happens to democracy when it is applied to a society with a large dispersed population? What are other examples of democratic societies besides Athens? Compare and contrast Athenian democracy with American democracy. Is the United States a democracy in the classical sense of the word?
The ancient Greek word "demokratia" was ambiguous. It met literally "people power". But who were the people to whom the power of the long? Was it all the people -all duly qualified citizens? Or only some of the people -- the masses? The Greek word demos could mean either. There is a theory that the word demokratia was claimed by democracy's enemies, members of the rich and aristocratic elite who did not like being outvoted by the common herd, their social and economic inferiors. If this theory is right, democracy must originally have meant something like "mob rule" or "dictatorship of the proletariat".
By the fourth century B.C.E. there were hundreds of Greek democracies. Greece was not a single political entity it was a collection of about 1500 separate poleis or cities scattered around the Mediterranean and black sea shores. The cities that were not democracies were either oligarchies or monarchies (often times called tyrannies). Of the democracies, the oldest, the most stable, the most long-lived, and the most radical, was Athens.
The origin of the Athenian democracy of the fifth and for centuries can be traced back to Solon. Solon was a poet and a wise statesmen but not a Democrat. His constitutional reform package laid the basis on which an aristocrat called Cleisthenes could pioneer democracy. Cleisthenes championed a radical political reform movement which in 508 -507 ushered in the Athenian democratic constitution. Under this political system Athens successfully resisted the Persian onslaughts that...
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