Daily Blog Day 3 – Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Question: Was Athens really a 'democracy'?
Many people debate over the topic of whether or not Athens was really a democracy. According to dictionary.com, a democracy is government by the people, and that it is a form of government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised directly by themen or by their elected agents under a electoral system." This is of course the present day view on the subject, and we take things very literally. Therefore, because of this, we may not necessarily say now-a-days that Athens was a true democracy like what we have today. This is especially looking at the fact that women did not have any rights. This takes away part of the whole effect. In current times, women are free to vote and therefore free to participate in the democracy that men have experienced for years. Although, do we really have the ability to tell the inventors of democracy that they did not really have an actual and true democracy. The Athenians themselves invented the idea of democracy. How can the very people that create it have gotten it wrong when they made the principle idea our society now stands on. Therefore, I believe Athens was a democracy. What we have to ask is whether or not we have a democracy. Although in saying that, I may have taken it too far. I believe we are a democracy just in a more intense form. Therefore, Athens was a democracy, and in fact the true, original democracy. free
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