The word democracy means "government by the people; a form of government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised directly by them or by their elected agents under a free electoral system." (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/democracy). In Athens their democracy came more from the people than elected officials. They didn't elect people for office instead whoever wanted to be in office would put their name forward and then the offices would be picked randomly. This way anyone could be in office. This helped have more of the peoples' views. Also men over the age 18 could go to meetings every ten days where they would talk about government things and vote on laws. Their democracy had more of everyones say on which laws they had. For America the people don't choose the laws, our elected officials vote on the laws. I think Athens was a democracy just not a very professional and organized democracy. But I think it was good that the people got to vote so they had their say in everything.
sources:
"Ancient Agora of Athens." Wikimedia. Web. 17 Feb. 2010. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ancient_Agora_of_Athens.jpg
"The Beginnings of Democracy." Languages. 14 Sept. 1999. Web. 17 Feb. 2010. http://languages.siuc.edu/classics/Johnson/HTML/L10.html
"Democracy." Dictionary. Web. 17 Feb. 2010. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/democracy
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