Athenian democracy similar to American democracy Essay

Our country was called a democracy when we still had millions of slaves. Our nation today is called a democracy when millions of citizens never exercise their right to vote, a few hundred party leaders select our national semipolitical candidates, and only those who hold up million-dollar treasuries can run for political office with a reasonable chance of winning. Latin American military dictatorships are called democracies. South Vietnam with a single candidate for president during the Vietnam War was called a democracy.The word democracy comes from two Greek words a noun, demos which promoter people and a verb, kratein, which means to rule, Its basic meaning is government by the people or rule by the ruled.Ideas were expressed promptly through the Assembly, which consisted of all male citizens over 18 years of age and who were willing to attend the sessions held about every 10 days. There was no system of representation calling for long campaigns and expensive elections. If yo u lived in the country you had to get up at the crack of dawn in order to get to the conflux place of the Assembly, a rocky hillside within the city gates. The police chased all the loafers off the Angora, a kind of public park, in order to encourage good attendance. Any superstar who had powerful enough lungs to make himself hear by 6000 or more voters could speak to the Assembly. Of course, if you were a well-known and respected leader your chances of being listened to were greater. some(prenominal) this Assembly decided by vote was the law of the land.Athens, both the city and its surrounding countryside was divided into 10 electoral districts called federation of tribess. These districts were further divided into precincts or demes which had some limited self-government in the rural areas. individually precinct named candidates over 30 years of age for the Council of 500. From these candidates 50 were chosen by lot for each tribe to serve as instalments of the Council of 50 0 for a year The final choice by lot was one of the most democratic devices imaginable and reduced the danger of political skullduggery.There was no danger that the Council could farm into a private preserve for the wealthy or influential as modern government bodies have a tendency to do, because members served only one year no mancould be a member two years in a row and no one could serve more than twice in his lifetime. Just imagine what our legislatures and Congress would be like if we had rules like that.