Analyzing the Pros and Cons of the Athenian Political System

Analysis of the advantages and disadvantages of the Athenian political system:

The Athenian democracy, which enabled citizens to actively participate in politics, was, however, based on slavery, and the slaves, women and gentiles, who accounted for the majority of the population, did not have any political rights, and those who were really able to enjoy this democracy accounted for a small number of people.

1 Benefits of the Athenian political system

(1) Innovative: It provided a new form of collective management for mankind, created a way of functioning democracy, and accumulated valuable experience for the development of democratic politics in later times.

(2) Superiority: the majority of the people to make decisions, so that the problem is more comprehensively considered; public officials have the majority of the people elected, the period under the supervision of the masses, reducing the possibility of using power for personal gain.

(3) Progress of civilization: It promoted the development of cultural undertakings and made Greek civilization an important center of civilization in the ancient West, and even in the whole world.

2 Disadvantages of the Athenian political system

(1) It was only for groups of citizens, and non-citizens, such as foreign immigrants, slaves and citizens of other countries, did not have the right to enjoy democracy;

(2) it was a democracy for male citizens;

(3) all public offices were filled by elections and lotteries, and this kind of turn-over of the government was highly likely to lead to extreme democratization, which leading to the decline of democracy.