Ancient Greek Government

Introduction This assignment describes the character of the four ancient governments in order to compare and contrast the five government forms in the Ancient Greek city-states. They are monarchy, aristocracy, tyranny, oligarchy, and democracy.

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.

The earliest Greek civilization thrived around 4,000 years ago. Some of the things that they had we still use today, such as art, science, math, literature, and politics. The Greeks were known for their great intelligence, military strategies, and their architectural skills. All Greek's spoke the same language. This was done to make trade easier and to be able to communicate between different parts of the country. Even though everyone spoke the same language the Greek language had three different dialects which were Aeolic, Doric and Ionic. These three different dialects came about from the three tribes around the country. All Greeks believed in the same gods, who were a big part of their culture. The Greek government was not a monarchy

Compare and contrast monarchy, aristocracy, tyranny, oligarchy, and democracy as forms of government in Ancient Greek city-states. The ancient Greece has surely been a clear and shining example of human, cultural, social and political development; indeed, in the ancient Greece we’ve been seeing the first examples of government differentiation, a nation, whether big or small was no more simply ruled by a single omnipotent living god-king, instead new systems were slowly growing. Poleis such as Athens, Sparta, Thebes are clear examples of this differentiation, related to the age, their government changed when more, when less, between monarchy systems, to tyranny, oligarchy, to democracy and so on.

Aristocracy: The Greek word aristocracy has a meaning rule by best, which gave the best chance for the wealthy knowledgeable people to rule. The concept of aristocracy interpreted by Plato, an idea that states ruled by the philosopher kings. (Wikipedia,2018). The Athenian aristocracy was more advanced in social and political advancement from other city-states.

1). All social and political influence was dominated by those who held the most property, your family, and the most wealth and so it was throughout most of Ancient Greece. Aristocracy seemed to be the single most prevalent form of government throughout Greece as even under the guise of democracy or an oligarchy the rich and powerful still held certain political footholds that gave them favor and allowed the to control and often gain wealth and

The Democracy of Ancient Greece was used heavily in creating modern American Democracy. From the system of creating new laws to the checks and balances that define the American government. The similarities show that the founders of America based the new democratic government on the Ancient Greek democracy that came two millennia earlier. The American government was mainly based of Greek democracy.

This paper will focus on comparing and contrasting monarchy, aristocracy, tyranny, oligarchy, and democracy as forms of government in ancient Greek city-states. Sparta, a famous Greek city state, practiced an unusual form of monarchy. It is unusual because the Greek word “monos” means “one”. Therefore, monarchy connotes ruling alone. This was not the case in Sparta for they had double kingship.

Most of the aristocrats were privileged to rule because of the legacy left for them by their fore fathers. This type of government was done in Sparta before the birth of

The same social order remained the same until Archaic Greece. During this time period, there were the two classes of society. The first class was the agathoi, who were the rich men. The second class was the kakoi, who were the poor. The agathoi had very little power over the kakoi due to three main reasons, which were “economic, military, and ideological” (Morris and Powell

The Athenian government was laid out by using all four forms of government. These four types are as follows; monarchy, aristocracy, oligarchy, and democracy. Around the period of 750 B.C.E. Athens went through each one in the order I listed them. After they went through all of this it finally ended with a “winner of the ensuring free-for-all was Cleisthenes (who ruled from 508-494 B.C.E.), an aristocrat and the true founder of the Athenian democracy.” (Alder & Pouwels 2015, p. 105). Basically, they would have a town meeting with all the free males Athenians to make the decision for the city-state. They would vote at these meetings. Next, “the boule was a council of five hundred citizens who were chosen by lot

It’s 507 B.C. there are 500 men in a council meeting and discussing, trying to figure out what to do about the rules that need to be made and the guidelines that need to be set in order to oversee the people of Greece. The fact of having a set idea of government is a big deal and has followed us up to today. It decides whether a system or society fails or prospers, the more stable the government the better and longer the society lasts. Greek has been an up and down roller coaster of good government and bad. Greek government had and still does have a huge influence on modern government systems in format, procedure, and policy.

This is the origins of Athenian rule. The few who are rich can essentially ensure that their will is done, in order to further their own interests at the expense of the people. This a rule that Sparta chose for their structure, in the sense that their own interests remained focused on military might and consolidation of power, however Spartan men must earn their place amongst the Ephors and Garoussia by serving in the Spartan army.

History shows us that many things are necessary for a government to run smoothly. These include, but are not limited to, having uniform laws to protect citizens, and having a uniform money system. Another important factor is having a political system for the government to identify with. A political system, a coordinated set of principles, laws, ideas and procedures relating to a particular form of government (www.dictionary.com), is imperative to have in a government. When a government considers themselves apart of a specific system, it is crucial the rest of the country is on the same page. In Ancient Greece, the government in the city-states went through many different political systems. These included a democracy, monarchy, oligarchy, and

The rich and well-connected classes of Ancient Greece composed the aristocracy, as well as any surviving descendants of prior royal blood or favor. Many of these individuals had influence in the presiding ruling body, whether it was breaks from taxation or pushing the agenda of favored philosophers. These people often times used their influence to seize power, which made them into tyrants.