19th Amendment and Democracy Essay

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Ancient Greece

Democracy: Ancient Athens and Today

The democratic process of ancient Athens as compared to today was much different. The most obvious difference is simply the scale of the process. Ancient Athens was a relatively small city-state compared to the enormous country that is the United States. There are many millions more people in today's U.S. than there were in ancient Athens. Today's elections are also much less direct than they were in Athens. The U.S. uses an electoral and representative system of democracy -- but Athens practiced direct democracy: every participating citizen was able to vote directly for or against a law or policy. In today's world, citizens are very far removed from the process for the most part and must rely on their elected representatives to represent them fairly. Given the sheer number of people in the U.S. and the many differences of our people, fair representation is harder and harder to come by.

Ancient Athens also only allowed men the right to vote. Women were excluded from the democratic process. In the U.S., this is not the case. Women were granted the right to vote in the early 20th century by the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Prior to that, voting was a "men only" affair. Today, things are much different, as there are women representative and a woman running for President of the United States.

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The replacement of democracy in Athens by oligarchic rule, however, is somewhat similar to what we have today. Many people feel that our own democracy has been taken over by oligarchs -- elites, who run the system for their own benefit, colluding with many others from their own spheres in order to effect a governing body that looks out for its own interests. In this way, today's U.S. is most similar to Athens -- democracy has given way to rule by elites.

2. Battle of Leuctra and Thebes https

The Sacred Band of Thebes was a group of elite soldiers in the Theban army in the 4th century BC. It played a vital part in the Battle of Leuctra in 371 BC by fighting at the head of the Theban army against the Spartan warriors. The Thebans had learned their tactics from the Spartans, and were able to improve upon their own by copying the skills of the enemy. The Spartans for example used a phalanx that consisted of 8 rows. The Sacred Band led the Theban army which duplicated the Spartan arrangement, except it was 50 deep instead of 8. Thus, it was able to essentially steamroll right over the Spartans and crush them.….....

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