Athens Vs Sparta Essay

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How did people in Athens and Sparta obtain the right to participate in public life and make decisions affecting the community? Who held public office? What rules governed the selection of public office holders? How were the two city-states similar in their governmental structures? How did they differ? Athens and Sparta were to very different city-states that existed simultaneously in ancient Greece. This paper will compare their political systems; contrasting how eligible citizens of each obtained the right to participate in public life and make decisions affecting the community. It will also explore who held public office, what rules governed their selection, how the two were similar in governmental structure and how they differed. …show more content…

Anyone could be elected to this office, and the popular assembly selected them. The popular assembly also selected the Gerousia but they could only be from the aristocracy. The Athenian People’s Assembly, which every male citizen as described above belonged, elected the Magistrates who applied the law and led armies. The Helia, which were jurors who heard lawsuits and cases, were selected by lot, and the Boule or council, which handled the day-to-day business of politics, were also selected by lot. This system was much more egalitarian than Sparta. Both city states has assemblies of the general citizens (always males only) and both had an aristocratic class that tended to have more power. However Sparta had kings whose power (at least in the field of battle) was almost absolute. The aristocracy has the Gerousia all to themselves and concentrated most of the power in this group. Athens had many major positions decided by lot and thus were open to all regardless of social strata (at least in theory.) Athens and Sparta started out with very similar systems of popular citizen groups and aristocratic groups both contributing to the politics of the city-state. But the ways they evolved were very different.

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