The Ancient Greek city of Athens had what they considered to be a democracy, however it was very different than the idea of democracy today. The word democracy is actually of Greek origin. The main idea of this political system was to give the power to the people instead of favoring the wealthy. In Athens, this idea was taken more literally than today's democracies. Instead of holding elections to choose political leaders, they picked leaders directly from the 'mob'. They did this because elections tended to favor high society men, which was exactly what they did not want. The people were even given the power to vote to have a political leader exiled. This form of government favored "the people," but only adult men that were completely Athenian could actually be a leader of the government. They carried the idea of democracy to their courtrooms and even the theatre. The Athenian government was a very successful democracy, and even though this type of political system has changed a lot since the city's time, they were still considered a democracy.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/greeks/greekdemocracy_01.shtml
No comments:
Post a Comment