The concept of democracy stretches back thousands of years, as far back as Ancient Greece during the fourth century BCE. For example, in Athens, they utilized a system of government historians refer to as Athenian Democracy.  In it, Athenians participated in a direct democracy -- which is where citizens directly partake in democratic decision making. Though some of their governmental rules intersect with the U.S.’s, the United States’ democracy is vastly different than the Athenian democracy was. 

In 507 BC, an Athenian leader named Cleisthenes came up with a political system he called demokratia, which translates to “ruled by the people.” This meant that any person (man or woman) in Athens partook directly in governmental decision-making. The system was composed of three separate factions called the ekklesia, the boule, and the dikasteria. The ekklesia, also referred to as the Assembly, wrote the laws and dictated any foreign policies. They met about thirty to forty times a year and decided on laws by a majority vote. The boule, which was also called the Council of Five Hundred, was a board of representatives from the ten Athenian tribes. These fifty men from each tribe served on the council for a year and met every single day. The dikasteria, or the popular courts, was the court system where citizens could fight their cases in front of a randomly-selected jury. New jurors were selected each day, five hundred of them at a time. Around 460 BC, the democracy began to shift into an aristocracy, which was a form of government ruled by the smaller but wealthier upper class.

The benefits to living in this new style of government were notable. It can be seen with the people of Athens having a direct influence on the laws and rules they were passing for their society. This got the citizens engaged and made them feel like they had a real say in what was going on. Another example was that there wasn’t just a single person ruling over Athens. Having the input from multiple individuals made the laws more agreeable and gave the common people a voice. Lastly, everyone had the same amount of power. One citizen had the same amount of control as the next, which was extremely important to get the democratic idea out. Though there weren’t many things wrong, their government wasn’t very strong. Since it was a new idea and they were still getting used to it, the solid foundations of democracy that the U.S. has today weren’t there yet. 

The U.S.’s democracy is similar to the Athenian democracy, but it has its differences. The U.S. utilizes a representative democracy while the Athenian democracy had a direct democracy. A representative democracy is a form of government where citizens vote for individuals to represent their country. In ancient Athens, it was simply any man who owned land could be a part of the government, while in the U.S., individuals  just have to be 18 years old to vote. Though, in both democracies, citizens had the right to participate and vote on the rules that governed them -- just in different ways. Both the U.S. and Athens vote for people to represent their government, in Greece though, it was a lot less of a big deal than today.

Around 460 BC, the Athenian democracy began to shift into an aristocracy, which was a form of government ruled by the smaller but wealthier upper class. Moving into the 1700s, the U.S. took that ancient idea of government for themselves when they gained their freedom. The importance of the origin of our government holds strong to this day because it helps us understand why things are the way they are. We still utilize a lot of the same ideologies, like voting and electing individuals into the government.