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This week’s written assignment is to compare and contrast monarchy, aristocracy, tyranny, oligarchy, and democracy as forms of government in Ancient Greek city-states. I will address each form of government, providing examples of each and will include applicable comparisons and/or contrasts. One monarchy, which is characterized by the rule of one person, in ancient Greece was Macedonia. This region was ruled by a king whose power was constrained to the extent that he had to listen to the citizenry. This king could only govern as long as he had the support of the aristocrats. Some have considered Sparta to have had a type of monarchy. ( Martin, T.R. (1985) “An Overview of Classical Greek History from Mycenae to Alexander” Retrieved from …show more content…
Each were comprised of a select group of individuals. The difference being that an aristocracy is composed of the elite of a society “a class of eminent citizens was deemed best qualified to rule the people. And an oligarchy is composed of ‘Oligarchy is the rule of the chosen few, and these chosen few happen to be the rich and the privileged in Oligarchy.’ ” Author unknown, (2012), Retrieved from http://www.differencebetween.com/difference-between-aristocracy-and-vs-oligarchy/ A further distinction between these two forms of government lies in heredity. The aristocracy was largely formed by blood and were considered nobility. The oligarchy is comprised of individuals based on wealth. Both were comprised of wealthy individuals but aristocrats to coin a phrase were born aristocrats, while oligarchs achieved their status. An example of a democratic government in ancient Greece occurred in Athens which has been attributed as having the most advanced form of democracy. In democratic Athens, an advanced system of checks and balances was established to avoid excesses of power. ( Cartwright, M., 2014 “Athenian Democracy,” Ancient History Encyclopedia, Retrieved
It is surprising indeed that Even today, tyrannies and dictatorships exist in the world when more than two and a half thousand years ago the ancient Athenians had developed a functional and direct form of democracy. What contributed to this remarkable achievement and how it changed the socio-political. scene in Athens is what will be considered in this paper. The paper will have three sections, each detailing the various stages. of political development from the kings of Attica to the time of Pericles when, in its golden age, Athens was at the height of its. imperial power.
...hold absolute power but is equally controlled by the actions of the people as they are considered to be a servant for the people.
Without the two, a city will not be able to be properly managed if it is not run as an aristocratically. Aristocracy 's defining principle is virtue, oligarchy 's is wealth, and democracy 's is freedom. The “deviations of those mentioned are tyranny from kingship, oligarchy from aristocracy, democracy from polity. Tyranny is monarch with a view to the advantage for the monarch, oligarchy rile with a view to the advantage of the well off, democracy rule with a view on the advantage of those who are poor; none of them is with a view to the common gain.” (Lord, 2013,
With a dictionary definition (cited above), there is little end result between all definitions besides democracy. monarchy, oligarchy, aristocracy, tyranny all translate to few people or individual(s) ruling with power. Indeed, aristocracy and oligarchy are synonymous within this definition, as well as monarchy, aristocracy, and tyranny. The former being ruled by groups while the latter in definition are ruled by individuals. Not much difference.
Some couldn't afford it. Most should know the Ruler would have the most power which usually makes the conclusion that s/he has the most currency. Which puts the Ruler on the top of the social structure. After comes the standard rich people who have a good and pretty important career. Under them comes the peasants then the homeless.
... social beings and never made an attempt to hide themselves or their wealth that came from the state under order form the king.
The system of government we have today was starting to developed centuries ago by the Athenians and Romans. Both governments were established with the intent to give power to the people, even though it did not always play out that way in society. The Athenian democracy and the Roman republic were two very different governments in practice, but also maintained similar characteristics in both systems of government.
The social classes consisted of the upper class, which included aristocrats and wealthy landowners, the middle class, which was made up of traders, public workers, shop owners, and members of the social work force. Finally, the lower class consisted of farmers and slaves. The differences between each class were quite noticeable, and the reason behind this was the way that the government regulated the flow of the money (Lemann). The upper class, which held most of the power, greatly influenced the creation of laws and the collection of taxes. This led to excessive taxes for the middle and lower class, which then went to the “government” or the upper class. Consecutively, the upper class paid little to no taxes, allowing their wealth to greatly increase (Thacker). Hence, while the middle and lower classes kept on losing money and becoming poorer, the upper class gained more money and exponentially increased their
government was ruled by a king who had power prestige and wealth. They were also hunter and gathers.
Sparta has had two rulers lately, who ruled until they passed on. Then again, the leader of Athens is chosen every year. Athens is said to have been the origin of majority rule government.
As an introduction, Greece had a vast number of ancient city-states as one can easily gather from the map above. Many of these include Athens, Sparta, Corinth, Megara, Argos, Macedonia, Epeiros, Sicily and so many more. A lot is said about Athens and Sparta, but very little is spoken of the others. How were the government structures set up? Which of the city states had a monarchy, aristocracy, tyranny, oligarchy, and which city-state had a democracy? How were they similar? And how were they different? These are the issues I'd like to address. To begin each section and thoroughly answer everything, first I plan to define what each term is, and then I plan to speak on which city-states the term applied to.
Before creating the democratic form of government that the Athenians first used, Athens practiced the oligarchy. Athens had a center of government in their city state known as the polis. The polis was the city-state’s center for government. All around Greece, people were using a polis as their center of government. But rather than having democracy as their forms, they ranged from oligarchy (“rule by the few”) to tyranny (“rule by the tyrant”) and the in betweens of timocracy (“rule by the wealthy”) and aristocracy (“rule by the best”). It was only in response to the crisis of corruption within their oligarch that Athens decided to start the Council of 500, and create the rule by the people (C).
Ancient Greece was home to two of the most influential cities of its time, Athens and Sparta. Athens was known for its thinkers, art, and architecture while Sparta was the “warrior’s society”. While both cities ended tragically, they were successful for an extended period of time. This could be attributed to their forms of government. In Athens, the power was in the hands of the people in what is now known as a democracy. Sparta went the way of militarism, pursuing military policy. Another difference was the way they treated their women. Given different forms of government, Athens and Sparta were successful in their time.
Compare and contrast monarchy, aristocracy, tyranny, oligarchy, and democracy as forms of government in Ancient Greek city-states.
The nobility included people who inherited wealth. They were inclined in cultural endeavors like arts and music. Wealth in this group was transferred from generation to generation.