Democracy In Athens And Sparta

Introduction
Throughout Ancient Greek history various forms of government have ruled the Greek city-states of Athens and Sparta. These have included aristocracy, oligarchy, tyranny, monarchy, and democracy. An oligarchy is ruled by the few, which could also be as a small group of the aristocracy. Monarchy is ruled by a hereditary single sovereign, while tyranny by a single leader who took power by force. Democracy is the rule of the people. This essay will show the changes of government between the city-states (Cartledge, 2011).

Brand (n.d.) tells us Athens was initially ruled by the aristocracy; those chosen few of the noble classes. This is can also be called an oligarchy. They had all the good, fertile land and dominated in the political
His changes, however, did not change the social ills of the day as now there were three warring factions, the wealthy, the middle class, and the poor. They all had their own agendas, each wanted something different, and no one would talk to the other. The unrest continued, and with the curtailment of the nobility, Peisistratus, a tyrant, eventually took over, creating a benign autocracy/tyranny. While this helped win against the Persian invasions, the people again revolted and demanded more say in political matters (Cartledge, 2011). Once again, from the aristocracy, a reformer was chosen, Cleisthenes. His reforms broke up the three factions, dividing up the Athenian people among the 10 tribes. Each tribe had members from each of the three factions. This broke up the impact of any one group over the other. He restructured the government by creating a council of 500 or a Boule (Brand, n.d.) who set policy and laws, and an assembly of all the native, free-born, men who voted to accept or reject the council's proposals. Thus, (direct) democracy and “rule of the
Before each new form of government rises, there appears to be an increased amount social upheaval and instability, along with economic uncertainty, with the people rising up for