The Role Of Democracy In Ancient Athens

Abraham Lincoln once said, “No man is good enough to govern another man without that other’s consent.” Lincoln conveys the thought that without a democracy, the balance and equality between men is disrupted. Throughout Ancient History, the average working-class man had no control over his government. From oligarchies, to aristocracies, to tyrannies, all types of governments were set up where only a few select people controlled the masses. The city of Athens, in ancient Greece, was the first city to undergo a transformation from a monarchy to a democracy that affected and changed the lives of average men from then until the modern world. Ancient Athens was the vanguard for rights of the common people. “Average” is relative here, as the only
Specifically, the city-state of Athens underwent the transformation from a monarchy to a democracy, developing citizen participation in justice, citizen-based decision making, and redistricting voting, lighting the pathway for the fight of the average man for the right of self-rule. Citizens deciding legal cases was a big step in the fight for self-government. The laws in Athens were very loose, and the average Athenian man did not benefit at all. Oral laws, and vendettas carried out by the upper class complicated the government’s ability to function, with punishments carried out by laws that were enacted on the spot. Next, Draconian laws ruled in Athens. If a law was broken, the immediate punishment was death. Poverty was rampant, with Oligarchic rule. Many rich, aristocratic archons were sentencing people to death for petty theft, so the people under control soon revolted. The tyrant Solon came to power, and created a
The tyrant Solon, building on his laws and juries, created a branch of government dealing with the creation of laws, problems involving the city, and other political matters called the Ecclesia. All citizens of Athens, which meant the free, white, land-owning males, met three to four times a month under the Acropolis, for the Ecclesia. The leaders only needed 6,000 people to vote, so they devised a system of using red paint to select the men they needed. Participation in the Ecclesia was mandatory, but there were some benefits for the average man partaking in it. During the meetings, there was total freedom of speech for everyone, regardless of social status or class. Also, as the years went on, and the Ecclesia grew more popular, members started to get compensated for their work for the city. The money justified taking the day off work to discuss matters about the city. Although juries had given civilians more say in judicial matters, and all citizens had the chance to speak out about the city, with the Ecclesia, the city of Athens was still divided. The rich lived in town, the middle class lived in the outskirts, and the poor lived in the remote mountains. The three different topographical locations were their own regions, with minimal mixing between the social