Download David Perez, Darren Ng, and Ryan Lahti

Perez, Ng and Lahti 1
David Perez, Darren Ng, and Ryan Lahti
Mr. Clarkson
Honors English 10 Period 3
23 April 2009
Greek 2.0 Synthesis
Governments come and go, change with the ends of ages. The great City-State of ancient
Athens gained huge renown by creating the world’s first democracy. Other nations in the
following centuries would copy and mimic this original government. The United States, with its
representative democracy, uses the same basic government structure. Both the United States and
ancient Athens use democracy as their basic government structure.
In ancient Athens, the first types of governments including monarchy, chiefdom, and
tyranny. These early governments focused on a single person ruling a larger amount of people.
As time progressed, the government transformed into an oligarchy, a form of government
controlled by many men. Due to the preexisting thought that upper class men were the most
capable at governing, control over the government excluded the lower and middle classes. The
athenian oligarchy eventually developed into a democracy. Similar to an oligarchy, a small group
of people still controlled a democracy. In a democracy, however, all of the citizens voted on the
important issues, not only the oligarchy. The citizens in a democracy also chose the members of
the oligarchy, and it was not based on class (“Greek…”).
The United States also uses a democracy as their central form of government. In the US,
the people elect members of a small ruling class, called the federal government. The constitution
of the US created three branches of the federal government, the executive, legislative and
judicial. In the US government, this ruling organization exercised its power over the people to
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maintain order, and the people chose the members of the government. The Athenian government
greatly influenced the American government.
Both the Athenian City-State and the US have a democratic government. Although the
Athenians did not originally have a democratic government, throughout the ages of the
Athenians, they changed their government's flaws and created the strong government of
democracy. The US chose to have a democratic government because it proved to be effective by
the Athenians and did not separate the social classes as much as some other government types
did. According to BookRags, Inc., "over time, people have changed and revised the way nations
are ran, through picking up bits and pieces from previous knowledge of other regime." This
proves how government evolves as the ages progress and humans evolve.
Through Athens' creation of the world's first democracy, numerous nations in the future
possessed a basis for creating their own democracy. With democracy, governments help maintain
social order by allowing public opinion shape how its nation functions. Without it, the world and
its relationships would not be the same.
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Works Cited
"Ancient Greek Gov. Vs. Democracy Essay | Student Essays Summary." BookRags.com: Book
Summaries, Study Guides. 2006. BookRags, Inc. 14 Apr. 2009
<http://www.bookrags.com/essay-2006/5/18/122617/698>.
"Greek Government." University of Richmond: On Campus. 1998. Richmond University. 14
Apr. 2009
<http://oncampus.richmond.edu/academics/education/projects/webunits/greecerome/Gree
cegovt1.html>.