Blog 6

If an Athenian of the 5th century BCE were to come and criticize our present day representative democracy then i think that it would take some adjustments for them to approve our modern way of controlling our democracy in the US. The Athenians found it more useful to have a small population, and to also include all men who would like to rule within the time span of 1 year. In our modern society, only one in two million people get to rule the country, but then again...we have a more organized election system. One of the pros of having a 1 year position in ruling is that everyone who wants to,can get a turn to rule...if your a man of course, so no one would get too powerful. But, nowadays in America we have a structured 4 years of time to get our ideas across and try to make a permanent change in the country, while 1 year would be to little to make such changes. In terms of power...the Athenians had more control over that. The president of the US would surely be more powerful more than any other in the country, while back then...the Athenians really took into consideration to how much time one should rule before getting to powerful. One con that might come up in a small population is that not everyone will get who they want elected, as opposed to our modern world where its very beneficial for majority to rule. In other words..the Athenians representative democracy is very different from ours and would be far from approving our modern societies way of democracy.