As we have gone about our virtual journey through Greece, one of my favorite aspects of each of our sites and the stories behind them is their comparison to our society today. While ancient Athenian democracy was the foundation for many government structures around the world today, including in the US, there are numerous differences between the structure in ancient Athens and the US today.
The most obvious difference between Athens’ democracy and the US’s today is the fact that Athens had a direct democracy, meaning that the people voted on everything, whereas we have a representative democracy, where the people vote individuals into office who then make decisions. I think that this difference greatly affects the mass public’s involvement in our government; since people feel as though it is someone else’s job to make political decisions, it can be easy for them to check out of the political world entirely. Athens strived to keep their people involved in the government; in fact, every single citizen was required to be informed and engaged, and to participate in the government by voting and fulfilling positions that they were elected by lot to. Their direct democracy reflected this goal of having everyone involved, and it ensured that all citizens felt as though they had a place within the governmental structure.
Contrastingly, it seems as though the US’s representative system is almost set up to keep citizens from having an active role in the government. There are many barriers that keep citizens from voting: inability to make it to the polls due to work schedules and limited voting hours, sparse polling places, language and identification barriers, the list goes on. In addition, as Ann mentioned in the discussion, our democracy favors only a certain personality type that runs for office. Whereas anyone could be drawn to hold most positions in ancient Athens, only charismatic, and usually wealthy, individuals typically succeed in the US’s political world. Also mentioned in the discussion was the glaring issues of the electoral college. Put in place to protect the people against the tyranny of the majority, the electoral college can seem to be doing more harm than good at times. While a representative democracy seems to be a fitting model for a country of our size, there are definitely issues within our system, and we should be taking steps to fix them. The true challenge is to see these issues as opportunities for solutions, as the ancient Athenians did, rather than as excuses for inefficiency.
The Athenians were very concerned with protecting their city-state from tyranny, and many practices in their government reflected that. One such practice was that of the scrutiny which the archons undergo before assuming office. This process can be thought of as similar to senate confirmation hearings in the US today, though there are, once again, key differences. Senate confirmation hearings are more of a formality in the US’s system today, those being questioned have already been vetted for the position; the archons that went through scrutiny in ancient Athens had not been vetted at all for the position, their names had simply been drawn. During the scrutiny process, the individuals up for office are questioned not about their qualifications to hold the office, but their eligibility to do so. While the idea of not assessing someone’s qualifications to fulfill a position seems somewhat otherworldly to us today, this system actually worked very well for the Athenians, and it allowed people of many different backgrounds and mindsets to be in office. Additionally, Athenian citizens were aware that there was a possibility every single year that their name could be drawn for archonship and they may be subject to a scrutiny hearing; this possibility further encouraged Athenians to live an honest, law-abiding lifestyle.
The Athenians’ political structure was full of checks and balances all intertwining with one another; this had the effect of both encouraging citizens to be honest and good, and protecting the democracy from corruption. Whereas the US today has three branches of government that check and balance each other, every single role in the Athenian democracy had multiple checks and balances in place. Having experienced tyranny before, the Athenians worked diligently to protect their society from corruption. Fittingly so, the Athenians also placed a large emphasis on transparency within the government. All financial records were made public, anyone could attend many judicial processes, and everyone was free to gather in the Agora and learn about the happenings of their society. This is a feature that the US government is sorely lacking today, there are few aspects of our political system that are completely transparent.
Once again, it is easy to point out the flaws in our system, but the real issue is finding solutions for them. I think that the US’s current system could benefit from taking a few pages out of the Athenians’ constitution. I believe that our system should better encourage and allow citizens to take an active role in our democracy, encourage citizens to lead a more honest lifestyle, and make strides towards transparency. Clearly, these objectives are easier said than done, but I believe that there is always room for improvement and that oftentimes great ideas for improvements can come from history.
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