Ancient Greek Democracy

Many democracy-governed countries, like Australia are based on the laws and policies of the Ancient Greek democracy. The word democracy originated from the Greek words; demos meaning people and crata meaning rule, together meaning people rule. Ancient Greece and Australia, compared are very similar, but also have their own policies and way of doing things. The two countries are governed by democracy, however are governed by two different systems. The Australian system is the representative democracy, which means citizens of Australia vote for a Prime Minister to make important decisions on behalf of the country. You must be over 18 to vote and Federal elections are held every three years. On the other hand, the Greek system was a direct democracy, meaning that the free men of Greece would make the laws and policies of the country. They met every nine days or sooner if necessary. The meetings had to exceed 6,000 people before these meetings where allowed to begin. Was and is democracy a fair system of government.

In the Greek democracy, those who were considered, as citizens were only native-born, free men. Women, slaves and migrants were not considered as citizen’s, depriving them of the right to make laws and policies for their country. This was an unfair system; Social Standing determined citizenship. The Greek democracy contradicted itself; they chose the word democracy, but excluded half of their population from voting. Why did someone’s gender or occupation determine if they were allowed to vote. Was this where male dominance and inequality originated from, In the Australian democracy, this would not be tolerated because like what the word democracy means people rule, this means all citizens should be able to voice their opinion and have their say on the important matters of their country.

In respect the Greek democracy worked, and is the ground on which other countries have based their democracy. Through out the world, most democracy countries have started from the Greek system and have incorporated their own policies and laws, to work for their individual countries.

In Australia the representative democracy used, is when citizen’s of Australia over the age of 18 and on the electoral roll, vote for a Prime Minister, who they think will have the best interests of the country in