How Did Greek Influence American Democracy

Most of America considers itself a “Great” nation. Whether this means powerful, intelligent, flourishing, thriving, et cetera, is unclear. In order to explore where America obtained the inspiration for its greatness, I am going to walk through the influence of the great Greek and Roman cultures and Empires (so to speak). These ancient civilizations were among the first that had governments of democracy and sophistication, of elections and thriving economies on a mass scale. America needed a strong, binding and uniting foundation of government and that is what it got from drawing upon these ancient civilizations. The entire way that the American government works and thrives today is

I believe that ancient Athens was not a true democracy. In a democracy all of the people are able to vote, and have a choice on who runs their city. In ancient Athens only the men were able to vote. Their government was Demokratia, and this excluded the women, the children, the metics, and the slaves. Even though their government was ran by the people themselves, only the men in the city could vote. Only the men truly had a say, and ran ancient Athens. Some people believe they were more democratic than us today, but I think they were never a true democratic government.

Democracy, a form of government, allows the people in their own nationality to vote for people in order for them to become representatives as a result to vote on new laws that would affect their own nationality. One of the many states of Greece, ancient Athens was indeed not truly democratic as a result of not inclusive, other than male citizens, to gain authority in ancient Athens, ¨Demokratia was ruled by male citizens only, excluding women, free foreigners(Metics) and slaves.¨(Document D), therefore ruling Athens was only accessible to male citizen since since women, free foreigners(Metics), and slaves were not allowed to rule as a result of not being male citizens.

3. Compare and contrast the idea of democracy in Ancient Greece and Rome. Which system was more democratic and why?

Just like several other ethnic groups in the 1800s, poverty drove many Greeks to emigrate to America. In their home country, agriculture paid inadequately and was long, arduous work. And those already paltry conditions turned destitute for citizens when blight struck their crops. This caused a mass migration from Greece that began in the 1890s and lasted through the 1920s (Iliou, 2007). During that time, many people from Greece sailed to Ellis Island, in hopes of a better future.

Citizenship is a status given by a government to some or all of its people. Being a citizen means not only meeting certain responsibilities, but also enjoying certain rights. In the U.S. today, many of our governmental institutions are based on concepts of the Ancient World. Citizenship in the United States resembles the concepts of citizenship in both Ancient Athens and Ancient Rome.

Many of the qualities of the New World were greatly affected by the people of historical Europe. The people of the Greek and Roman Empires, the Dark Ages, and the Renaissance helped establish what is now our government, economic system, and social structure.

Aristotle once said, “The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet.” Athens was established in 3000 BC, while Sparta was respectively established in 431 BC. Athens was also referred to as the “birthplace of democracy,” a government system still in use today! Athens was a superior city state over Sparta. This is because of Athenian cultural achievements, government and social climate.

When you look at the literal definition of democracy in the Merriam-Webster dictionary, there is a decently large explanation. When looking at this definition and trying to decide whether the Athenian democratic system was truly democratic, one would have to go with the answer no. While it has been stated that Athens is the “cradle of democracy”, and that it was better than any of the other governments in the world, it was still a work in progress. The Athenian democracy, while it did give more power to the people, still left a lot of citizens out. The current American democracy may have steamed from Athens, but they do not really have that much in common.

The ancient people truly influenced our world today inventing the calendar we still use today and the idea of a democracy that the U.S.A uses in our daily lives. ( Doc. 1 ) Ancient Athenians used a type of democracy called direct democracy that is very similar to the United States representative democracy. Each citizen would have a say in everyday government. For example, when the people of ancient Greece were deciding the name of the city we now know as Athens, everyone had a vote whether to name the city after the goddess of wisdom, Athena, or the god of water, Poseidon. They obviously chose Athena as the name of the city is Athens. (OI) Another great contribution of the ancient people is the Gregorian calendar. Calendars we now use today

Athens, located in southern Greece, experienced an expansion in culture and education during the years between the Persian War and Peloponnesian War (477-431 BC) which set the stage for future expansions of culture in civilizations like Ancient Rome and Europe during the Renaissance. Although Athens was very prosperous, innovative and ruled by strong leaders during their Golden Age, they still didn’t have a perfect government or social structure which puts into question how successful this period actually was.

The Greeks and Romans seem to be extremely influential on our modern civilization. Many Greek and Roman traditions and cultures play major roles in our civilization. These traditions and cultures are displayed throughout our government, education, art, architect, cultural activities, and many other things. I assert the most influential ideas the Greeks and Romans had are displayed in our government, art, and architecture. Their ideas have inspired over 25 centuries, growing and changing over time, and still remain in our modern civilization.

The modern concept of political liberty has its origins in the Greek concepts of freedom and slavery.[7] To be free, to the Greeks, was to not have a master, to be independent from a master (to live like one likes).[8] That was the original Greek concept of freedom. It is closely linked with the concept of democracy, as Aristotle put it:

Compare and contrast monarchy, aristocracy, tyranny, oligarchy, and democracy as forms of government in Ancient Greek city-states.

Neither society was as inclusive as most modern societies, but both had things they held ideologically important, and did very well. We would do well to look upon the successes and eventual catastrophic failure of both societies, and avoid the same pitfalls-many of which are present in the current global political landscape. It is fascinating to me that Sparta lives in infamy to this day, despite the dearth of archeological remains when compared with Athens. What will be said of our society after it has faded into antiquity bears