Ancient Athens Democracy: The Rise Of Athenian Democracy

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Some governments felt that it was their rule over the people, as revolts and agreements emerged freedom of speech eventually has progressed. Since Ancient Athens was the founder of what is called a democracy, it is noticeable how Western legal traditions since Ancient Athens to modern democracies has evolved because of being influenced by the principles of equality for the citizens. In Ancient Athens, all male citizens had political rights and freedom of speech. In Athens, only men who were 18 and older were allowed to participate in speaking and voting in the assembly. Women, slaves, and foreign residents were not able to speak of their opinions because men were considered the leaders. Besides certain groups of people being excluded, Athens' democracy was based on discussing how to improve on their government. No one was able to get too much power or …show more content…
Before the Constitution, there was the Articles of Confederation that had laws that the 13 colonies had come up with after breaking from Britain rule. According to Article IV, it stated that “Freedom of speech and debate in Congress shall not be impeached or questioned in any Court, or place out of Congress, and the members of congress shall be protected in their persons from arrests” (us history.org). Though this article shows some part of freedom, slaves were excluded from these laws and never were considered “citizens”. Along came the Constitution of the United States and the Amendments. The first Amendment says how ALL people have the freedom of speech and press and the right to go against the Government with a petition (Constitution 21). The U.S. had a major evolution when it came to freedom of speech because at the time slavery was normal and now things have changed and slavery was