Aristocracy: In ancient Greece, the aristocracy was more pronounced in Athens than in Sparta. The Athenians placed a lot of emphasis on democracy and democracy itself since time immemorial have created directed and/or indirectly created an aristocratic class within that democracy. The Spartans where more war-like and placed more emphasis on physical prowess and ability.…
The country of Greece, in 507 BC, was established with the idea of democracy. It…
Several Greek city-states had the government form of an oligarchy, where the small group of people wield the ruling power. They were considered the highest class as political power was shared amongst the group (Carr). The groups were formed based off of aristocratic birth or wealth (Carr). Unlike this class, the lower class citizens in the oligarchy did not share the same rights as they lacked full political rights and were not eligible to rule (Carr). They are thus excluded from voting or having any type of say for any political decision for the city-state Furthermore, the right to vote or to be eligible for power was based off of wealth in this government form. In contrast to this government for his city-state lived under, Aristotle explores…
Democracy has been around for hundreds of years and while the basic principles have stayed the same though each society governed in a slightly different way. The most influential democracies were Greece, as it was considered one of the first democracies, and the Roman Republic which lasted several hundred years. Because each sovereignty ruled differently, they had different advancements in the areas of democracy especially in the people's role in the government, the method of voting and fairness of law.…
The word democracy is derived from two Greek words, demos, which means people, and kratos, which means rule. Today the word has come to mean exactly that, ruled by the people. Many ancient political Greek philosophers would use the phrase "the governors are to be governed" which we can relate to today. Even though the Greek's notion of democracy is dramatically different from our current democracy, it has been one of the most influential philosophies that have shaped the political thought of the United States. Ironically the term democracy is the most used term to describe the American government even though it has little meaning in our government today.…
Athens and Sparta in the ancient Greece world are both revered by many modern civilizations as being foundry influences on modern democracy. The two city states, however, were polar opposites in how they viewed democracy and ran their government. Sparta was known for its military prowess and power, while Athens has always been famed for its progress in the arts and sciences. While both being developmentally different and butting heads sometimes, they both were integral voices on how similar democratic societies ran their governments up until today. The defining differences between the two is that Athens was a heavily class based Democracy, compared to Sparta which was more definable as being an Oligarchy.…
While this system helped Sparta become the military powerhouse it was in ancient times, it did not help them create an environment in which a complex political system could grow. The Spartans decided to opt for a political system that was stable and a system that protected the people of Sparta. By using oligarchy as their form of government, the Spartans let the powerful few rule which stagnated the role of the everyday citizen in politics. Now those few powerful people controlled every aspect of life in Sparta. Even though Sparta did not have a government that thrived on the participation of its peoples, Sparta did have one unique characteristic that the other city-states did not have. Spartan women had a status of power and respect that was not seen in the ancient world. Spartan women were given almost the same rights as their male counter parts. The women were taught to read and wright, they were allowed to participate in sports, and Spartan women even had the ability to own land in society. Even though they had all these rights, Athenians still participated more in government. This is shown by the way Athens ran its government. An example of this is…
Hemmingway’s short story “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place” begins with an old man drinking brandy in a Spanish café late at night, into the early hours of the morning. A young waiter is upset, wishing that the old man would leave so that he and the older waiter could close the café and go home. However, the older waiter realizes that the old man must be lonely, especially since he had attempted to hang himself the week before. When the old man finally leaves the waiters close the café, with the younger waiter going home to his family and the older waiter wandering the streets to find his own clean, well-lit place.…
One caller mentioned that the term democracy was a contradiction when it came to the Greeks because of slavery. However, Cahill mentioned that to the Greeks, slavery was just a way of life and that the Greeks didn’t see any wrong in the practice. He continued to say that it takes time for ideas to evolve and change for the better. Also that only a minority of the Greek population participated in democracy (10%-20%) and that children, woman, resident aliens and slaves did not.…
SS6S3C3PO2— Describe the impact of the Greek democracy on ancient Greeks and how it relates to current forms of government.…
The kind of government that Ancient Greece had was democracy, wherein everyone is given a chance to be heard and “the administration is in the hands of the many and not the few” (Reilly 91). This gave its citizens to have a say on the events and decisions that occur in the city. It is also a form of government where “aristocrats [were] stripped of all their powers except for certain judicial functions” (Bowra 93). Anyone was capable of being part of the government regardless of their job or their state and each part of Ancient Greece had their representatives to ensure that each part able to contribute and lead. This had a significant part to its rise to power because this form of government was able to develop a trust among its people and it was used as a means of being able to communicate effectively among the people of Ancient Greece.…
Athenian democracy was guided by the principle of isonomy. Isonomy basically means that everyone in Athens is equal before the law, and all citizens have equal participation in creating the law (Breaugh, 2011). Even though citizens are equal in the political sphere, they were not equal in other areas of the polis. The lower classes in Athenian democracy were equal in the sense that they had an equal to vote on the laws, and to have a say in issues that would impact the polis, but the lower class citizens had more to lose by participation, because of pay loss (Breaugh, 2011). Therefore, until the Athenian government introduced compensation of these people, the lower class citizens would not exercise their right to equal participation. As Athenian democracy evolved, the lower classes of the polis participated equally in the assembly, and could possibly have a chance to rule. In the statement Plato says, “Dispensing a sort of equality to equals and unequals alike”. The classes were only part of what Plato meant. The people who were not citizens were also given a sort of equality, but not in the polis. Although people who were not citizens of Athens could not participate in the political life in the polis, they had a ’sort of’ equality in Athens (Breaugh, 2011). Slaves had to be treated fairly, although they had no residency rights, or the right to legal advice. Slaves were considered part of the household; they could participate in religious ceremonies, and had basic legal rights. Unlike in most areas with slaves, they could buy their freedom back in the Athenian polis (Breaugh, 2011). Metics were a very important part of the Athenian economy. The only reason that Metics were not allowed to participate was that it was believed that it was impossible to be economically prosperous, and have an active political life. Metics were equal in other aspects, including responsibilities to the polis, including military service.…
Part of Pericles’ plan for Athens was to increase the number of public officials with paid salaries and use direct democracy. Pericles plan for democracy was also for the poor to not be discriminated for social rankings. He also wanted the citizens to serve his country at any position on the social scale but you have to be a defined citizen. Pericles once stated “…power is in the hands not of a minority but of the whole people”. Athens went through a period of time of power struggles between the rich and poor. Today there are many countries that use democracy as a form of government.…
For the years that the United States has appointed by having regular meetings they always end with having a conclusion if there the laws are the best decision that will help the United States to have rights and being fair to the citizen of the United States. That time has finally come due to the fact that the federal government of the United States is being supported with three equal branches which are the executive, the legislature, and the judiciary. They saw the circumstances which is by England’s official and decided to construct a different kind of government which the government could not overpower the people of the United States. Also, the U.S. Constitution had created a central government which has the power to enforce laws and not…
The development of the Greek polis--whether a military oligarchy in Sparta or democracy in Athens--allowed citizens to participate in political issues. This concept of the "rule by the people," mainly in Athens, gave the citizens a sense of freedom and harmony. Greeks applied the label "polis" to all of the states, regardless of their political distinctions, because each was a koinonia, a community.…