Ancient Greek Democracy Pros And Cons

I don't believe that Athens is truly a democracy. The way it was governed by only men proves my point that it wasn't a democracy. A Council of 500 citizens would make and debate on all the laws and decisions in Athens. That sounds like a good idea, but the Council of 500 is all men! Yes it’s a step forward in democracy but there is a lean in the way of the view of men and no view of a woman's perspective.

Democracy, the form of government in which there is a rule by the people, is said to have originated and thrived in the classical period of Athens, from 500-350 B.C.. Democracy inherently gave all that were considered citizens power to participate in politics. That being said, it is highly debated as to how much power the people, also known as the demos, exercised in this democracy. Many practices and informal institutions can be said to have limited the power of the demos. The democracy in Athens could be said to have been a democracy in theory yet not in practice, as can be proven through a variety of primary sources recounting Athenian political institutions and practices. Such primary sources that can demonstrate this include Herodotus’ History, Thucydides History of the Peloponnesian War, and Demosthenes’ Oration Against Eubulides.

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

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.

b. Monarchy – rule by one where power rests in the hands of a king or queen

The evolution of the Athenian, Roman, and U.S democracies started in ancient civilizations over 3,000 years ago. The U.S system of government has undergone changes through the past years, the U.S system is still in use. Athenian and Roman democracy's were both in the same time period, but share some big differences between them. These three different systems of government went through changes in many ways.

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

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

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)

Greek had four political systems. Monarchy, Oligarchy, Tyranny, Democracy. Monarchy- During the Mycenaean period (c. 1400–1150 BCE), most city­-states were ruled by monarchies, a system of government where one person—the king or queen—has the power to rule. Monarchy comes from the Greek mono­, meaning one, and archos, meaning leader.

In comparing and contrasting monarchy, aristocracy, tyranny, oligarchy, and democracy as forms of Government in ancient Greek city-states, it is important to note that while many people did associate ancient Greece with the origin of democracy, it was also home to many types of Governments, as has been stated above, thus monarchy, aristocracy, tyranny, oligarchy, and democracy did exist. Monarchy is a system of Government in which one person rules, and that one person is usually a Queen or King. Greek states were ruled by monarchies around the year 2,000 B.C and this begun with the mycenaeans. The power of a monarchy was considered to be hereditary.

A monarch is when two people like a king or queen rule the land, there's also a absolute monarchy that is when the king and queen are the only two people that have all the power nobody else but them.Usually the king and queen will have children and when they pass the children get the role of being king or queen. Absolute Divine Right Monarchy is Absolute power and theory of divine right together.

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.