Democracy Essay Research Paper DemocracyI

Democracy Essay, Research Paper

Democracy

I. Meaning of Democracy

II. Summary of Places and Dates

III. Features of Democracy

IV. Types of Democracy

V. Early Democracy

A. Athens

B. Rome

VI. Middle Ages and England

VII. The Renaissance

A. United States of America

B. France

VIII. Modern Times

IX. Important People

Demos Kratia, or democracy, as it is used today, means the people rule.

A democracy is a form of government is run by the people of that country through

elections and representation. A democracy is really a form of a republic known as a

democratic republic. A republic is a government where officials, elected by a small

group of people, make the important decisions.

Democracy has been around for almost 2500 years since Athens, Greece

became the first democracy. The Romans also experimented with democracy,

however it was more a republic, and not a democracy. Around 1200 England laid

the groundwork to become a republic. Later, in the 1700 s, United States of

America, became a democracy.

There are many features of democracy. Most of these features are the same,

but individual countries use varations of the main ideas. The main feature of

democracy, which determines a true democracy, is free, competitive elections.

Sometimes however, women or minorities don t have the right to vote. Some of

these other features, such as checks on power, help to limit the strength of any one

person or party. Other features like free elections, and majority/ minority rule, help

to make elections fair, since the judgment of many people is generally better then

the judgment of a few people. Political parties keep one government, or idea of

government form holding all power. These features let the people to govern

themselves without the country being torn apart.

There are two true types of democracies, direct democracies, and

representative democracies. In a direct democracy all the people meet to discuss

problems and creat laws. A direct decision consults all the people for the

decisions.. Since that is unpractical in todays world, a new form of democracy, the

representative democracy has arisen. This form of democracy has elected

representatives making most of the day to day decisions, while the main groups of

citizens consulted for only the most important decisions.

One of the earliest known democracies was in Athens, a city-state in

southern, ancient Greece. Around 620BC, Athens became the first true democracy.

In Athens the ruler Draco tried to make many reforms in the city state. Draco

organized laws by putting them in a written code, letting everyone know what the

laws were and how they applied to everyone. He also gave the people the right to a

trial. The next ruler Solon, the next Athenian ruler also helped Athens become a

democracy. He also wrote many reforms into the laws and gave all citizens the

right to vote, an important step in the origins of democracy. Some of his reforms

created problems for other people, who wanted to become citizens. In 500BC,

Athens looked like a modern democracy. The main lawmaking body was known as

the assembly, and all free male citizens could be in the assembly. The assembly met

about forty times a year to discuss and vote on the issues. The council of 500,

which was made of volunteers from all ten districts, helped sort out the assembly s

business. An even smaller council, a counsel of fifty men, made the daily decisions

of the city-state. The largest problem of Athens democracy were that only a few of

the people could become citizens, therefore limiting the power to a small group.

This problem caused many slaves, and other non-landowners to be disappointed.

Athens, no matter what the problems, was the first true democracy.

Rome, around 500 BC, became a republic. A republic is not a democracy,

but is very similar to a democracy. In this republic, the elected officials only

represented a small fraction of the people. Some of the ideas Rome used, mainly

the practice of elected officials helped to shape the ideas of a representative

democracy.

In Rome, the wealthy people, the patricians, had much more power then the

poorer people, the plebeians. Despite the fact that the plebeians had very little

power, the fact that they had any power at all was a step foreword for democracy.

As a part of Romes government, there was a senate and two assemblies. The

senate, made up of senators, proposed laws and ratified treaties. The Assembly of

Centuries directed military members, and the Assembly of Tribes represented all of

the people. In theory the assembly would be made up of both plebeians and

patricians. However it was proved that the patricians were very adept at controlling

the plebeians and thus held all the power at the assemblies. Despite the fact that the

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