Essay On The Pros And Cons Of Greek Government

During ancient times, civilizations popped up all across the world with their own societies, governments, and cultures. These civilizations stayed separated for hundreds of years, but over time they started to spread out and expand. Societies started to blend together and take ideas from one another which lead to greater power house civilizations. Power house civilizations did not necessarily have to be big in size, with the Greeks being a prime example. The Greeks live on the Peloponnese peninsula that is home to mountain ranges that takes up a huge portion of land so from the start the Greeks had to participate in trade with other countries to get their staple food supply; otherwise, they would be living off of grapes, olives, and wine.
Even though ancient Greece was a smaller civilization, the society as a whole was a driving force that influenced many civilizations from the start and well into the future. The Greeks advanced society molds into a sustaining civilization that is home to several different types of government varying across each city-state, or polis.
The biggest governmental attribute is the creation of democracy. Few city-states ruled with a democracy, but when they did only a small elite could take part in government. Greece used direct democracy, or a type of government where all of the citizens participate together. Direct democracy has its pros and cons, and within Greek society it was a balance that worked well and helped them flourish. This type of ruling allowed citizens to fully participate and decide what the society should do as a whole, and it allowed the government to keep citizens happy. The down side is that the people voted with emotion so that if Greece was being attacked everyone wanted to fight back. Once the votes were cast there was no turning back, and the soldiers get sent off to war without pre-thinking about better solutions. Several civilizations tried to adopt this Greek government style but failed due to the civilization being too large, like the Roman civilization. Due to this failure in other societies, democracy merged with other styles of government to suite each civilization. Over time the Greeks held true to democracy and spread this style far enough to influence civilizations thousands of miles away from the tiny peninsula where it
started. Greek civilization did not only strive in maintaining a long lasting government, but exceled in literature, arts, and architecture. Art in ancient Greece covered a wide array of subjects and designs with their primary subject matter being the human figure. In the early years of Greece, art and artistic architecture was limited to either the upper class who could afford to hire an artist or for public use to depict the gods in statues. The wealthy upper class would make their homes a living work of art with careful details on ceilings and distinct columns on the inside and outside of the house. The use of columns was also used in great works such as the Parthenon in Greece and spread to several countries bordering the Mediterranean.