Question: What are the characteristics of an Athenian democracy?
Thesis: An Athenian democracy only offers opportunities to rich men, it consisted of various councils and courts, and it had a complex system of determining what was best for Athens during this time. There were six different levels, including the general public discussions, the councils, the courts, the magistrates, the president, and the committee. This kind of democracy differs from modern democracies in that it was not nearly as inclusive as one might have thought. When most think of the word democracy, they think of something that values the opinion of each person in society. Some, especially in America, like to equate the phrase and concept of democracy with things like “freedom” and “equality.” This was not the case in Athens, as democracy was just limited to the people who were believed to be smart enough or important enough to have an opinion. An Athenian democracy did have a lot of discussion, but that discussion did not come from multiple viewpoints. Rather, it came from a very singular viewpoint – the majority male with money. Women, young people, slaves, and the like were excluded, and poor people had almost no voice in the process. This, in turn, allowed for the rich to use democracy.
In this paper, I am going to set out to discuss what distinguishes this kind of democracy from others. While Athens, and Greece in general, are known for democracy, they are very different from other democracies, and especially different from modern democracies. This paper will outline not only what the Athenian democracy was like, but also what other democracies have been like. This will be effective in order to distinguish Athenian democracy and establish what makes it unique.
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"Athenian Democracy: Essay Proposal".
- Maurizio, Lisa. “The Panathenaic Procession: Athens’ Participatory Democracy on Display?.” Democracy, empire and the arts in the 5th century Athens (1998): 297-318.
- Sinclair, R. K. (1991). Democracy and participation in Athens. Cambridge University Press.
- Yunis, H. (1996). Taming democracy: Models of political rhetoric in classical Athens. Cornell University Press.
