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Athenian Democracy Vs. Dictatorship Analysis

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The reading assignment opened me up to a higher level of insight then what I thought was a subject I knew quite well. I knew that the democracy the Greeks had was vastly different then most modern democracies. I didn't know about how cruel some Greek polices were to it's own people. In the end the reading assignment taught me new things and defined some I already knew. The people of Sparta seemed to be truly more barbaric then the history commonly described. As Dr. Peter J. Bland (2010) wrote in Athens&Sparta democracy vs dictatorship " True power was in the hands of an "elder council” of men over 60 called the Gerousia and five magistrates called Ephors who were elected annually and served for one year terms in office”. I knew Sparta had a King whose power was minor in comparison to a council. I now know the council is called Gerousia. I find myself shocked that you had to be sixty to enter this council. Even until recent times most men didn't live to be sixty. I still shocked spartan men had life spans that long. Sparta military component is probably the most recognized component of their society. Yet I knew …show more content…

I feel there democracy came from trying to build a better society yet keep a lot of ancient traditions. According to Dr. Bland (2010) Cleisthenes seemed to be the leading revolutionary who helped spur Athens in a new direction even being that of a high level citizen of Athens. I find a small comparison with some of the founding fathers. That even being from the upper echelons has taken a interest in helping all people of society. Unfortunately like everything about life nothing go's according to plan. Just like Sparta there Democracy was done in a similar fashion. Their council was called Boule and seemed more open then Sparta still held similar principles (Dr. Bland,2010, pg.19,20) The rich true men of the city state had all the true power where most suffered and scraped for every

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