Direct Democracy Definition Ancient Greece
How it worked is that all adult citizens had to take an active part in government rule by many if called on to do so.
Direct democracy definition ancient greece. A form of direct democracy in ancient greece was practiced in ancient city state of athens for about 100 years. The people really liked it. During the 40 annual meetings of the ekklesia any of the roughly 40 000 male citizens of athens was allowed to appear and. However there were also numerous drawbacks of the system.
Democracy in ancient greece served as one of the first forms of self rule government in the ancient world. While it excluded many groups including women enslaved people and immigrants from voting athenian direct democracy required men over the age of 20 to vote on all major issues of government. It was an experiment. Representative vs direct democracy.
A major disadvantage was the citizenship norms. Perhaps the best example of direct democracy existed in ancient athens greece. The ekklesia and the u s. The word democracy comes from two greek words that mean people demos and rule kratos.
Examples of direct democracy. Democracy in ancient greece was a direct democracy in fact our modern democratic systems would be considered by ancient greeks as oligarchy meaning ruled by the few as opposed to true democracy which means power control by the people or the many. There would be occasional town meetings that took place in the amphitheaters where all citizens could discuss and vote on the issues of the day. Greek democracy is the best example of direct democracy that prevailed in the ancient world.
The most important historical reference of direct democracy is to assembly democracy in ancient greek city states particularly athens where decisions were taken by people s assemblies of some 1 000 male citizens later people s assemblies were used in many swiss cantons and towns as well as in town meetings in some american colonies and states. Democracy is the idea that the citizens of a country should take an active role in the government of their country and manage it directly or through el. Athens and switzerland. The ancient greeks were the first to create a democracy.
Early greek democracy was a direct democracy. Legislative branch are similar in function but there is a pretty big difference in the people who made up the ancient legislative body and the modern one. History and theoretical context.