Ancient Greek Forms Of Government

Monarchies were ruled by one family, with a direct blood relative (a son) inheriting the throne and a claim

In Greece, monarchies were found when the Mycenaeans ruled Greece during the period 2000 to 1100 BC. Monarchy is defined as a system of government where a single ruler has supreme power. The word “monarchy” comes from the Greek words “monos” meaning “single” and “archo” meaning “rule”. This single ruler, known as a king, ruled for life and passed the rule on to his heir when he died. The most famous monarchy was that of King Alexandra of Macedonia who ruled all of Greece from 336 BC.

Throughout the centuries, countries had always been ruled by a monarch, or something that was similar. The civilizations that attempted democracy or republicanism would

China, India, and Rome all shared the idea of monarchy. Although Rome went through a phase of having a republic, all three empires accepted the rule of one supreme leader. The governmental system of monarchy showed up in most ancient civilizations all the way back to Mesopotamia and Egypt. Something about a single leader appealed to these people and to all people all the way up into the 1700s. Not to say that monarchies don’t exist anymore, they do. China held onto monarchy from the Tang Dynasty, past the Han dynasty. Han China worked similarly to the dynasty before it: the Qin. In India, both the Mauryan Empire as well as the later Gupta Empire, both functioned under the rule of an emperor. Although both Indian empires had different ideas and laws, the basic governmental structure

Absolute monarchy where a ruler man or woman has complete control over the government. Some may view monarchy as a way to keep everything under control, while most individuals view it as a way a ruler can torment his subjects to his bidding. Rulers viewed proper role of an absolute monarchy as a way to unite the people, on the other hand in their subjects perspective it was a cruel rule and the reason for their laborious life.

Let’s see what is Monarchy? It is a king or queen who gets all the powers of authority from inheritance and power stays in the same family, usually the bloodline from father to son. In Ancient Greeks, there weren’t too many monarchies, but there was some present and even Athens went under the monarchy at the end of the classical period which ended with the death of Alexander the Great. His father Phillip II of Macedon who became king after the deaths of his two brothers conquered Athens after the Peloponnesian war and ended democracy in the great city of Athens. (Wasson, 2014)

Monarchy A monarchy is a form of government in which the ruling power is in the hands of a single person. Monarchy comes from the Greek terms monos and arkhein. It is a form of in which the people are led by a king, usually with the help of a council of advisors. He takes power legally and his sovereignty hereditary. The ruler is empowered to remain in power for life. One citystate whose government was a monarchy was the city-state of Corinth. Aristocracy

In a monarchical society, the leaders had no trust in the people whatsoever so they would take charge. The king was as the people’s father and was over weak and dependent children. As a father would do, he would restrain the people from taking over the country and obeying his commands in the government. Wood explains in his quote how monarchy would only let people say so much, “...monarchies, based on the presumption that human beings were corrupt, had persisted almost everywhere for centuries because they offered security and order. ”(Wood, 93)

First, the definition of a monarchy is “a state or nation in which the supreme power is actually or nominally lodged in a monarch (Dictionary.com, 2017).” Ancient Greek city-states that had a monarchy were Sparta (partially), as well as Macedonia and Epeiros. Monarchies were not found often in Ancient Greece (Cartwright and Cartwright, 2017). The form of governance most like a monarchy are tyrannies, since the center of power is on one person. The form of governance most unlike a monarchy are democracies, since the center of power rests with the largest group, the people themselves.

monarchy government. A monarchy government is a government ruled by a King or Queen in a

In a constitutional monarchy, all the citizens have voting rights and the king or queen act as a celebrity. In a constitutional monarchy everyone gets to vote so the king or queen don’t make all the decisions by themselves. Some countries that live under some form of monarchy are: The United Kingdom, Monaco, Malaysia, Liechtenstein, Jordan, Sweden, Thailand, and Holy

Greek democracy was best developed in the city-state of Athens from where the very word “democracy”, meaning “the rule of the people” stems. People ‘ruled’ by electing officials through lot and making important decisions by majority rule. Democracy was direct, meaning that the Athenians “allowed the whole citizenry to assemble in the central eklisia, or the equivalent today of the main city hall, to vote on important issues” (Makedon 1995). In this sense, Athenian democracy differed from representative democracy that is currently prevalent in most states, in which officials are elected through democratic vote and then given authority to make decisions for the people. In Athens, elected officials were paid, but the pay was very low so that it compared with the wages of the poorest citizens and only covered the compensation of their time and effort.

Government falls into two categories; monarchy or a republic. A monarchy is a form of government that is always headed by a

Monarchical Government - this is a government by one person or monarch. However, it degenerates into tyranny which is a bad type of government.

A monarchy is a form of government where a monarch is ruling and usually, they are referred to as a king or queen. Also, a monarchy is hereditary. In history, the ancient Egyptians saw their monarchs as gods. Beginning in 1500, many European monarchs claimed that their power came from gods; also known as the divine right of kings. The World War I ended many important monarchies; however, there are still 26 monarchies around the world some of which are the United Kingdom, Spain, Sweden, The Netherlands, Morocco, Jordan, Japan, Saudi Arabia, and Swaziland.