The Limitations in Greek Citizenship and Democracy
According to most present-day historians that focus on the politicaland social realms of ancient Greece, the implementation of the concept ofcitizenship as the basis for the city-state (polis) and the extension ofcitizen status to all free-born members of the community is most closelyrelated to the Athenians who desired to form a free society in the ancientworld with democracy as its foundation. In Athens, citizenship carriedcertain legal rights, such as access to courts to resolve disputes,protection against enslavement by kidnapping and participation in thereligious and cultural life of the polis. It also implied participation inpolitics, although the degree of participation open to the poorest menvaried among different city-states. The ability to hold office, forexample, could be limited in some cases to owners of a certain amount ofproperty or wealth. But most importantly, citizen status distinguished freemen and women from slaves and foreigners; thus, even the poor had adistinction that set themselves apart from these groups that were not given There were also other limitations in regard to Athenian citizenship,for the incompleteness of the equality that und
In criminal cases, no higher court existed to overrule thefindings of a jury and there was no appeal from their verdicts. Thus, ostracism is significant for understanding Atheniandemocracy 3because it symbolized the principle that the interest of the majority mustprevail over the citizen when the freedom of the majority and that of thecitizen come into conflict. Thus, Greekcitizenship and democracy, according to Aristotle, was biased to the pointof giving merit or award to those in the upper classes as opposed to thosein the lower classes or the poor when certain persons of the elite did notdeserve merit for their actions or deeds. er laid the politicalstructure of the polis was most prominent as to status of citizen women whogenerally had an identity, social status and local rights that were deniedslaves and foreigners. The powerof the court system, however, epitomized the power of Athenian democracy inaction. out of theneeds of mankind; no one is self-sufficing. butdemocrats identity (merit) with the status of a freeman (being) supportersof .
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