What did the ancient Athenians mean by demokratia ? Demokratia was the system of rule under which the ancient Athenians lived under , the term comes from the Greek word "demos" meaning people . The idea was that it was the people themselves who ruled, not a monarchy or a few powerful people. The system was characterized by the fact that it was stateless. It was based on the ideals that every citizen was equal and every citizen …showed first 75 words of 1360 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1360 total…But for all its faults, the Athenians managed to establish a level of participatory democracy not matched by any future democracy-they set an example that we can still learn from today. Bibliography: Blackwell, C.W -An Introduction to Classical Athenian Democracy, Furman University, 2002 Finley,M.I.- Democracy Ancient and Modern,(London 1969) Hansen, M.H- The Athenian Democracy in the ages of Demosthenes,( Oxford 1991) Jones, A.H-Athenian Democracy (Oxford 1975) Satori,G.-Democratic Theory (New York)