Comparing Monarchy And Democracy In Ancient Greece

In this paper, I intend to show that ancient Athenian democracy influenced western political thought, specifically, western democracies. By influencing such modern day democracies, ancient Greek culture remains a presence in contemporary life.

The most distinctive feature of Greek political culture lay in the extent of popular participation in political life that occurred within the city-states. This participation was based on the unique ideas of “citizenship,” of free people running the affairs of state, and of equality for all citizens before the law. Political participation in Greek city-states was much wider than in Persia, but it varied considerably between city-states and over time. Early in Greek history, only the wealthy and wellborn had the rights of full citizenship, but middle- and lower-class men gradually obtained these rights in some city-states.

Democracy is defined as a government ruled by common people. The power of the should be in the hands of the largest class which is the poorest. The political system of ancient Athens was a Democracy, which involved all of its citizens.This system was divided in three parts: the ekklesia( a sovereign governing body who wrote the laws) the boule(representatives from the Athenian tribes) and the dikasteria, (the courts in which citizens argued cases in front of selected jurors). Every men could participate in the political process, being selected by lot to fill even the highest offices and being paid for pub- lic service. Four times a month proposals were debated and decisions were made openly so and any citizen could speak to the issues of the day.

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

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.

democracy is a form of government in which people come together and make laws for the benefit of the country for example, here in the united states people have the right to vote, have equal rights, pursuit of happiness and practice in any religion of your choice. ancient athens did not have a true democracy. In ancient athens Women, free foreigners and slaves were excluded from voting, the government body could decide if you were a citizen or not. Also, women weren't allowed to vote unless they married a citizen. Therefor there constitution did not favor democracy.

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

When evaluating the government of ancient Athens, some might say that it was a democracy, however, it can be better described as an oligarchy: a form of government in which a small group of people has the power and control (Doc. D by Mogens Herman Hansen). A democracy takes all the citizens’ opinions and thoughts into account, unlike an oligarchy that only takes the male citizens’ opinions and thoughts into account. Thus, Athens is more similar to an oligarchy than a democracy. The people of Athens also decide as a whole what the best government for their city-state was, as opposed to a democracy where the people elect representatives to make decisions for them and their city-state. Athens could be seen as not a true democracy because of the lack of basic democratic rules and methods such as what they define democracy as, who is able to vote, and how they vote.

It was usually a tyranny, a form of monarchy or a select group of people. The Greek states could either be ruled by a single individual, such as monarchs and tyrants, or a select group of people, an oligarchy, or every male citizen, which was a democracy. Also the idea of a democracy was regarded as the Greeks' greatest contribution to civilizations of today. But actually monarchies were rare and often not distinguished from a tyranny unless the hereditary ruler was really kind and ruled in the interest of his people rather than himself. But tyrants were not necessarily considered evil, rather they were considered rulers that were just looking out for themselves.“The most famous monarchies were the states of Macedonia and Epiros, where the ruler shared power with an assembly of people” (Cartwright). The Ancient Greek government went through a lot of changes, but, unlike the government, the military stayed

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)

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.

There were many forms of government in Ancient Greece. The ones that will be discussed in the following paragraphs are monarchy, aristocracy, tyranny, oligarchy, and democracy.

Both Greek Democracy and the Roman Republic contributed greatly to the development of the modern world, bringing into it the notions of democracy and republic. The evolution of these concepts took them to a level much higher than one present in Ancient Greece and Rome respectively. However, modern society continues to draw on somewhat idealized accounts of the ancient world for inspiration in improving today’s governing procedures.

Democracy began to emerge in Greece during the archaic (800-500) and classic (500-323) period, and it has expanded through the country over time . Greeks came up with the idea of democracy through discussions among citizens and with the majority voting; this was called direct democracy as everyone could debate and vote in one place to determine new policy for the country. During this period, only men were allowed to vote and give their opinions, others were not allowed to participate in government’s decisions . However, over time, the democratic government in Greece changed to be more open for every citizen. The poor, men and women, had the same rights, and equal share of power.

The Athenian government evolved from a monarchy into an aristocracy. A monarchy is when a King or Queen exercises central power. In Greece, the government was headed by a privileged minority or upper class, which ruled his or her own city-states. They created a system based on the right of each individual citizen to speak out about issues.