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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
This 3 page paper argues that direct democracy is impractical and looks at the concept historically. Ancient history is disused as well as how classic authors viewed the concept. Athenian democracy is compared to the representative democracy that exists today.
Bibliography lists 3 sources.
Page Count:
3 pages (~225 words per page)
File: RT13_SA345dd.rtf
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
despots. One sees film of people standing on long lines just to vote. Yet, while the idea of democracy--or leadership by the people--is something that many believe is the best
case scenario, the truth is that a direct democracy has never been effected. That is, there was never a true democracy that was not in fact a representative democracy. Today,
in the United States for example, an indirect or representative, democracy exists. In looking back to Athenian democracy where the concept originated, there are fundamental differences between what exists
now and what was then, but what sprang up was never a pure direct democracy. Most definitions of democracy today translates simply to rule by the people.
In ancient Athens, it meant rule by the demos, or citizens (McLeish 190). Athens in the fourth century B.C. was technically a democracy (Berkowitz 36). While the definitions essentially mean
the same thing, there are differences of opinion in terms of the fundamentals of democracy. In ancient Greece, the concept was taken literally (McLeish 190). In other words, the people
literally ruled. Citizens, who were male and over the age of thirty, which was equivalent to about a quarter of the residents in fifth century Athens, actually led the nation
(190). Some might argue that the leadership was based on age and gender and so all the people did not rule. That is certainly a valid point, which is why
when the people ruled then it was not much different from the representative democracy that exists today. In fact, the young male candidate is often preferred today as well.
While democracy was thought to be innovative, there were critics of the ideal. Socrates, Plato and Aristotle each condemned the form of democracy used and suggested that it was dangerous
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