Introduction
There were various forms of rule in Ancient Greece. These were monarchy, Aristocracy, tyranny, oligarchy and democracy. We will examine each in turn.
Monarchy
There were examples of rule by monarchy in ancient Greece. One example is in Sparta.
However, these monarchs did not hold the power that other monarchs did elsewhere in the world.
Sparta saw rule by dual kings from two different royal families, but their roles were largely ceremonial (Brand, 2010).
Elsewhere in Greece, monarchs were rare and were only distinguished from tyrants by their willingness to govern in the interest of the people.
Aristocracy
An aristocratic government is ruled by nobility. This was the kind of rule established in most of the city states of Greece
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Tyrants don’t always rightfully rise to power and are usually propped up by a large group (Cartwright, 2013). For example, Peisistratus from
Athens was supported by the Athenian hill men who were poor and fed up with the rule of the aristocrats (Wells).
Oligarchy
The word oligarchy means government by a select few who are usually corrupt and govern mainly to enrich their own selves. In this way, an oligarchy is similar to aristocratic rule, however, aristocratic rule is not usually punctuated by as must unjust behaviour as an oligarchy.
Oligarchies usually occurred when democracy had been abused. They could be found in Thebes and Megara (Cartwright, 2013).
Democracy
The best example of democracy in ancient Greece could be found in Athens. The word democracy has its root in the Greek word demos which refers rule the people. Whilst democracy refers to rule by the people, not everyone had a voice in ancient Athens. Only free-born males who were citizens of Athens were allowed to vote on matters relating to the citizenry. Women, slaves and non-citizens of Athens were not allowed to participate (Brand, 2010). There
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Despite this, there were ways that rich aristocrats hijacked the democratic process to make it more beneficial for themselves. Several attempts were
Government in Greece made to overhaul the process, the most significant by Cleisthenes who laid the foundation for modern day democracy.
Conclusion
Several forms of government were practiced in ancient Greece, some, with more success than others. Democracy was most successful and has survived to this day even though its start was rocky and it needed to be overhauled several times. One of the lessons that can be learned from government in Ancient Greece is that the masses do not tolerate unfair forms of government for very long. Eventually, the people revolt and demand fairness.
Word Count: 573
Government in Greece
References
Wells, H.G., Monarchy, Aristocracy and Democracy in Greece, Retrieved from http://outline-ofhistory.mindvessel.net/210-greeks-and-persians/213-monarchy-aristocracy-and-democracy-ingreece.html,
Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License.
Cartwright, M. (2013), Greek Government, Retrieved from https://www.ancient.eu/Greek_Government/ Brand, P.J., (2010), Athens & Sparta: Democracy vs
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Raaflaub, Kurt A., and Josiah Ober. Origins of democracy in ancient Greece. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007.
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