The Ancient Greeks and Democracy

Democracy is Power of the People. This was defined by the Greeks who first thought

up democracy. The meaning we use now is, a government by the people exercised or

directly through an elected representative. The terms politics, democracy and republic

all originated from Greece and from Rome. The key idea of democracy is that the

people hold sovereign power (textbook pg. 19) Democracy is one of the major aspects

of the government, it holds the most power at of all of them. Democracy takes on in two

different forms: direct democracy and representative democracy. Direct democracy was

created by the Greeks. And the representative was reated by the Romans. Democracy

was thought up around 700 to 300 B.C. The Greeks, contributed the most to the

thoughts and creation of democracy, and they have had the biggest impact on

democracy and to our government.

The oldest ideas of government came from the ancient Greek philosopher

Aristotle. He created three groups, that all governments belong to: autocracy ( rule by

one person) 2. Oligarchy (ruled by a few persons) and 3 Democracy(which is ruled by

many people.) Pericles, a leader in ancient Greece said Our constitution is named a

democracy because it is hands not of the few, but of many. People thought(think) that

democracy was the best form of government because it involves all the people. Except

once the people in Greece, started voting for there elected government only certain

people could vote such as: they had to be a man, a citizen of Greece, own land, and

they had to be white.

The first ideas of democracy and government came from Ancient Greece. When

Aristotle was one of the first people to study the polis, an ancient Greece city-state. The

Greek's came up with many ideas for there government. One of the most important

things they thought of direct democracy. Direct democracy is based on the thought of

that all citizen's debate and decide law's in what is called an assembly. Through this

majority ruled" was created it is who ever had the most vote's after the assembly

ajorend they would announce the winner or the new law created. Voting, majority rule,

direct democracy, and the assembly was all created the Greek's. And in today's

modern democracy we still use these idea's. When there is an election, we use voting

process

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