Paper Summary:

This paper presents a history of the concept of democracy. The paper examines the development of democratic ideas and the principles of Athenian citizenship, which helped to create the present American system with its certain legal rights and responsibilities. The paper discusses the development of the U.S. Constitution, contending that the Constitution that finally emerged from the Convention of 1787 fully provided for a system in which all Americans, regardless of class or social standing, could be represented. The paper determines that the aims of the U. S. Constitution and the principles of American democracy appear to be spreading, just like the democratic ideals of the ancient Greeks that so long ago spread across the globe and created new systems of government for all concerned.

From the Paper:

"In ancient Greece, many of the so-called city-states (the polis) created and maintained early forms of democracy (democratia or "rule by the people") by giving all male citizens the power to participate in governing the polis. Assemblies of men with some influence on the king had existed in certain earlier states in the ancient Near East, but Greek democracy broke new ground with the amount of political power that it invested in its male citizen body. As a result, the Athenians established Greece's most renowned democracy in which the individual freedom of its citizens flourished to a degree unprecedented in the ancient world. With this in mind, it is clear that Greek democracy as it existed in ancient times was highly influential in the development of the United States Constitution which, for the most part, is based on the same democratic principles espoused by the founders and leaders of Athens, especially during the times of Pericles, the greatest Athenian orator and political reformer."

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