Ancient Greek Government Essay

Robert Michels believed that any political system eventually evolves into an oligarchy. He called this the iron law of oligarchy. According to this school of thought, modern democracies should be considered as oligarchies. Unfortunately, Oligarchy Governments really hide under the name of democratic. As an example, a number of former Soviet states, including Ukraine. Officially, we live in a democratic state, but we all know who is at the helm of state power. Ukraine is called a democratic state, which governed by a few oligarchic clans.

Princeton University defines oligarchy as a form of power structure that effectively rests with a small number of people. The definition continues to say that these people can be distinguished by royalty, wealth, family ties, corporate or military control. I don’t understand why so many people would total power to control a person’s life and to say that it’s for their own well-being is unfair and unequal. If a

Oligarchy - a form of government where the power rests in the hands of a few individuals

The Greek democratic and Roman republic governments each had their own positive and negative aspects making them similar, yet exclusively different. Both have had tremendous influences on governments in our modern world. Rome was a republic where the leaders were chosen through voting, while Greece practiced a more direct democracy in which the citizens participated in the crucial decision-making within the government. This paper will attempt to diagnose the fundamental similarities of each government coupled with the not so obvious differences. Based on the evidence from each type of government, it is clear that each were similar and different in numerous ways, in particular the way each government

The city-states of Ancient Greek provide examples of different types of government structures that, even

Oligarchy comes from the Greek words “oligos” meaning “few” and “archo” meaning “rule”. Essentially “oligarchy” means “rule of the few in their own interests and not in the interest of the majority or the public good.” (Melville, 2011). Melville states that oligarchy was a “degeneration” of aristocracy as stated by Aristotle. Oligarchies were the most common form of government in the Ancient Greek city-states. In Sparta, the Gerousia (council of twenty-eight men over sixty-year of age together with the two kings) was an elite assembly dominated by the wealthier members of Spartan society. The Gerousia approved all laws that were submitted to the popular assembly for vote. The Ephors were a group of five men who were elected annually for a single term of office. The Ephors usually deferred to the guidance of the Gerousia (Brand, n.d.).

Government throughout history and throughout different cultures has changed from one system to another. People fight for power, and a steady government means usually means more prosperous times. When bad times come, power levels may increase, overthrows are enacted, and sometimes the system itself changes. Societies often go about this differently, and patters may be hard to find. However, one thing that history seems to show is that rich people dominant the government. Social classes have always been a part of society, and those who already have more money, education, and resources tend to be the one’s ruling over those who have less. Most people who rule are given extra resources and valuable because they rule. But the pattern that is seen throughout history shows people who already had much, getting power, instead of an average person getting to power, then becoming rich.

Oligarchy is the practice of a small group of people governing the states.1 Democracy is a system of government by the whole population, or all the eligible members of a state.2 The word Democracy comes from two Greek words, demo, which means people, and kratos, which means power, literally translating into the power of the people.3 The main influential form of government in the United States ¬¬¬was democracy. Democracy was created by a magistrate in Athens named Solon in an attempt to ease social tensions between the poor and the rich citizens in Athens. The Athenians as a whole appointed Solon, who was appointed the task of easing tensions and created laws based on balance, justice and good order, which gave power to the

Monarchies in Greece were hereditary. Kings often had many advisers and officials from the upper class to help them make decisions. Depending on the city­state,8ers had varying amounts of power. Oligarchy-The natural isolation of the Greek city-states meant they each developed independently. Eventually, the people overthrew the kings, and around 800 BCE they established oligarchies, or governments where only a few people hold power.

Oligarchy is a small group of people having control of a country or institution. The society today is becoming more like oligarchy. In, past years we have seen many groups that want to take over the world and rule it based on their religion or beliefs.

Oligarchy, in another word, “economic elite domination”, is a form of government controlled by a small ruling class, who dominates the political system to the exclusion of all others. Oligarchy typically has neither constitution nor charter, and the controllers mostly make the majority of decisions. As Thom Hartmann wrote in “The Crash of 2016” (Hartmann, 2016, p. xviii), “The spectacle of national

In Aristotle's Politics, he focuses much on the regimes of an oligarchy and of a democracy. Democracies exists when the free and poor, being a majority, have authority to rule, and have an equal share in the city. Oligarchies exists when the few wealthy and better born have authority and grant benefits in proportion to a person's wealth (1280a:10-30;1290a:5-10).

Forms of government in Ancient Greek city-states Anonymous student University of the People HIST 1421 Ancient Greece consisted of a lot of independent city-states, and each of these states had their own form of government. The most known ones were: monarchy, aristocracy, tyranny, oligarchy, and democracy. Between 2000 BCE and 800 BCE, almost all city-states were ruled by monarchs. From about 800 BCE to 650 BCE, the most popular forms of government became oligarchy and aristocracy. Later on, from 500 BCE, a democratic experiment in Athens became a good example for some other Greek city-states who adopted this new form of government.

If we think about Aristocracy, we think about a government system that was used during the Middle Ages around Europe. The term ‘Aristocracy’ has been derived from the Greek word ‘aristokratia’, which literally means ‘rule of the best’. Aristocracy is a government by a relatively small privileged class consisting of those felt to be best qualified to rule. Sampaolo, Marco. “Aristocracy.”

Aristocratic Government – the rule by few elites. Its success is depended on the people that rule. It however degenerates into oligarchy which is when men of property take over government.