Daily 15

Was Athens really a 'democracy'?

     The http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=democracy defines democracy as “a political system in which the supreme power lies in a body of citizens who can elect people to represent them.” In Athens, there was not a democracy until Cleisthenes. He was the ruler of Athens, but was exiled. He was eventually asked to return, but only if he formed this new form of government for the people. The Athenians had just recently stopped the Spartans and did not have a tyrant ruling. They did not want to be ruled by one person alone. Cleisthenes held a meeting and invited rich people and poor people. He instituted a simple form of voting using black and white stones. Black stones simply meant “no” while white stones meant “yes”. Someone would add up the stones for a result. This was the very beginning of the Athenian democracy. This started one of the best civilizations ever. The people were proud of this democracy and would later fight for it. Yes, Athens was really a democracy. It was the Athenian democracy, so it was not like the democracy in the United States, but it worked for the people. In the United States, people vote for others to represent them. In Athens, the people attending were voting for what they wanted. They were not technically representing any one group in particular, but there were rich and poor people and anyone could say anything. Athens was a democracy for a decent amount of time. It was an Athenian democracy that truly helped the people and gave them a reason to stay in Athens and participate in the community.