Daily #4 Week 4

Question: Was Athens really a 'democracy'?

Athens was said to be a democracy, which is a type of government where the people decide who their leaders are and how to run their country. But I personally don’t think it was. A democracy is where each individual person has a vote about what to do. Whatever the most people vote for wins. There is no king or tyrant, and anybody can propose a new law. Several instances in the Peloponnesian War make this thought particularly questionable. Some examples are how some situations were handled and how the leaders took charge. The earliest democracy in the world began in Athens, in 510 BC. When democracy proved to be successful in Athens, many other city-states chose it for their government too.

Some reasons why I don’t believe that Athens was truly a democracy was that the government of Athens was often changing, especially in the times of the Peloponnesian War. Also, there were plenty of political trials. Many opposition politicians were forced to leave Athens or killed based on very doubtful evidences prepared in politically-dependent courts. There was also no strong, and stable “political parties”, and patricians in Rome but many relatively unstable groups of interests built around alluring leaders. If Athens city-state’s had been really democratic, there would be a second empire like a Roman Empire in an eastern part of Mediterranean Sea. Athens would not have lost the war against Sparta. Real democratic system is too effective.