Ancient Greece: Democracy, Oligarchy, And Democracy

Approximately 2500 years ago a series of changes and reformations in political thought led to the creation of the ancient Athenian democracy. Through the changes implemented by Solon and Cleisthenes during the Golden Age of Greece, democracy was born in Athens. Although it was somewhat impractical, exclusionist, and only open to a very small percentage of the total Athenian population, its impact is still felt today. Athenian democracy is widely recognized as the model from which all other forms of democratic rule has evolved from. Through the principles handed down from that Athenian democracy, ancient Greek culture remains a prominent presence in contemporary life, particularly in regard to its democratic policies.

One mark Greece had on future societies in the West can be seen in the advancement of political order, namely democracy, which still prevails in not only the United States but across the globe. Democracy began development when Cleisthenes transformed Athens into a democratic state and took steps to protect the system of government from tyranny.1 The first period of Rome would later take from these concepts and became marked by the representative way in which they chose to govern themselves—as a republic.2

Ancient Greece was dominated by small city-states and independent towns, rather than by one all-powerful king, because of its geography. The country’s valleys, mountainous terrain, and offshore islands encouraged the development of many city-states. Altogether there were over 1500 city-states, but some of these barley qualify because they are so small. Each city-state had its own form of government and its own army, and even sometimes its own navy. Each city-state had its own way of doing things. Still, the city-states of ancient Greece had many things in common. They all spoke the same language and they all believed in the same god. But they were loyal to their city-state. The five most powerful Greek city-states were; Athens, Sparta, Corinth,

These self-governed city-states were governed by the natural laws of the universe. The polis also had a psychological pull to the point where it was infested into the art, religion, literature and philosophy (Document 1). In a way similar to India though, everyone identified first and foremost with their polis identity, like the Indians did with their caste system (Document 1). The way to gain power in Greece was not though money, but through family names and heritage, but in 330 BC, Cleisthenes created the basis of his reform for Greece: the demes (Document 2). By doing this he takes out the powerful noble families and gives the lower class the power to decide what happens with their government and therefore became more “deme-ocratic.” He did many things to change the structure of Greece to make it fairer. For example he took the original four tribes of Greece and redistributed them into ten different tribes so now the tribes can have more “civic rights.” Another example of what Cleisthenes did to fix things was that he increased the Council members from 400 to 500. Now each tribe was only sending fifty representatives, instead of the original hundred. Finally, one last example is that Cleisthenes divided Greece up into thirty parts. Ten urban and suburban, ten costal and ten inland and each of these contained its own special number of demes. Now, men were to be identified first by their demes name, which is very similar to India’s recognition of their caste name or level (Document

A form of government very similar to monarchy, Tyrannies usually grew out of oligarchies. The word tyranny comes from the Greek word tyrannos (usurper with supreme power). Many states, particularly in the 6th century BC, were ruled by a tyrant. It first appeared in Argos or Corinth, then Sicyon, Megara, Mytilene and Miletus. However, A tyrant usually doesn't pass power to his son, and despite common stereotypes, not all tyrants were bad leaders. Oligarchy An oligarchy is a form of government in which the ruling power is in the hands of a few leaders. The word oligarchy comes from the Greek terms oligos (few) and arkhein (rule). These "few" are rich, powerful or both, and are usually nobles, aristocrats, military groups or any distinguished group that rules tyrannically with their own interests at heart. Thus it did not benefit the mass population. It is highly championed by the Spartan government. In Sparta the Spartan who rose through the ranks and eventually serve as Ephor and Gerousia or is a direct descendant of the royal family Agiads and the Eurypontids get together to

Martin notes that word aristocracy translates to "rule of the best" whereas we commonly use the term to indicate rule of wealthy families in which power is passed down but not formalized by edicts or laws (p.41). Given the common use, I will use the term to for the rule of families not ratified by law. Athens had this type of rule in which wealthy land owners welded much power over the people until the demes later broke up

Since the dawn of the American revolution to the beheading of King Louis XVI, freedom has been used to describe the transition from control by a monarchy to that of a republic. The connotation of the suppressive nature of a monarchy by using powerful, positive terms to describe democracy often results in a lack of belief in the merits of the monarchy. Thus, there arises a desire to ascertain the unbiased history of democracy and monarchy, and how they truly affect a nation and its citizenry as well as the parallels these forms of government have to current society. The first monarchs from Egypt and Mesopotamia to the Roman Empire were considered living gods who held the sacral power of their subjects, and these rulers, from all corners of the world, created dynasties that lasted centuries.

In Greece, the beginning of a political system was very chaotic. Around the end of the “Dark Age”, there was no real system of government that could be compared to a known system of government.

Tyrants were looked upon as leaders who would work for the interests of the ordinary people and once in power, for example, tyrants often set up building programs to provide jobs and housing for supporters. This form government is not based on inheritance.

In Ancient Greek city-states a monarchy would be a type of government in which only one person would control the affairs of the city. Usually, monarchies became also traditional centers of power in which the son of a monarch (usually a prince) stands in line to inherit the

Picture a world of nothing but oligarchies, and you’ll see what ancient Greece was like. Ancient Greece consisted of a large amount of city states that were interconnected only via trade routes and alliances and, most of them, were almost all ruled by oligarchies and aristocracies. In 508 B.C., a city state set itself apart from the rest of the world by becoming a democracy. Athens, an influential “polis,” which is an ancient Greek city-state. Athens, which was located in the southeastern Grecian peninsula known as Attica, was the world’s first democracy. The Athenian Democracy lasted for 186 years, and even after it fell in 322 B.C., there were still traces of democracy in the Athenian government.

What made the Greek city-state a new form of political and social organization was that there was no longer a king in power of the people. The Greek city-state came during the Archaic Age which was led on by the Greek Dark Age. Although the king no longer had any power within the government, there still remained a king. The new government that was formed was called the polis. The polis allowed for the people to feel they had more of a say of what was going on in the government. Instead of the king creating all of the laws, there was a group of people who made the laws. These people were not royal, they were common citizens who were interesting in creating laws and justice.

There were multiple contributors to the fate of the Greeks. Athens, a major Greek city-state, started their government with Aristocrats in control. However, Cleisthenes, an Aristocrat, had a different dream of democracy. Once he became the ruler, he began to put democracy into place. He was interrupted when Isagoras overthrew and exiled him. The people of Athens did not like the tyrant Isagoras was; they revolted and got Cleisthenes back. He brought democracy and now the people were part of the government. The democracy was tested when the Persian Wars caused the democratic people to come together and fight. Next was Themistocles, who came to power through democracy. He knew after the first victory, the Persians would be back and got his people to form a navy. He planned to fight the Persians by water; by evacuating the Acropolis, he lead the Persians to the sea and defeated them. The time of peace started with Pericles, the new democratic leader of Athens, wanting to build the Parthenon on top of the Acropolis. Pericles wanted more, causing problems with Sparta. Sparta formed an alliance with Persians and trapped Athenians in the city.

Greece had a mountainous landscape so it was hard to develop a single central government. Greece’s typical political organization were city-states that used direct democracies. Each city state had a different governing style. A main factor that led to Greece’s fall was the lack of community due to the rise of feudalism in society, independence, and competitiveness. Alliances shifted constantly while tension and conflict increased between the rich and the

The city was governed by a few powerful men or a king that rules the city. these people would be the rulers of all the cities they ruled.