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Similarities between Athens and Sparta government
Comparison of Athens and Sparta
Sparta vs athens government
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In Ancient Greece, there were two most powerful states Athens and Sparta. These two states has left several gifts to the world and that gifts had variously effected the world. Athens is famous for its highly developed democracy and its veritable cultural revolution. (Pritchard, 2010) They have left democracy behind and now many countries’ government has a governmental form of democracy. Also as there are less wars than past, countries started to have cultural revolution just like Athens. The hypothesis is that throughout the 5th and 6th century BCE the governments of Athens and Sparta were vastly different in their ways of ruling, their beliefs and their laws; it was the Athenian’s development of democracy that has most shaped modern ways of ruling. …show more content…
They had several differences and as they did, their governments had a different style of ruling. To start with, they had different form of government. Athenian had a governmental form called limited democracy while the Spartan had a form called oligarchy with an element of monarchy, democracy and aristocracy. (Athens vs. Sparta, n.d.) Democracy created by the Athens past leader named Cleisthenes, meant rule of the people. It was to gather male citizens in the assembly, known as ekklesia, and give them equal political rights, freedom of speech and opportunity to participate in the political arena. (Cartwright, 2014) Any male citizen could step up in the assembly and help to develop the country. The system was very complicated and the leader was elected annually. Out of all states that had a governmental form of democracy, Athens were certainly the one with most developed democracy. (Government in Athens
Throughout history, many forms of government have come and gone with varying levels of success. Despite the vast cultural differences between Ancient Athens and the Modern Day United States, current American political institutions have been heavily influenced by the Ancient Athenians.
The governments of these two city-states were not alike in many ways. “It is true that our government is called a democracy, because its administration is in the hands, not of the few, but of the many,” (Document 3). Athens’ government was what we would consider today a direct democracy. This means that their government was run by the people, or in other words “the many”, rather than a couple government officials, or “the few”. Although Athens was running their city as a government by the people, Sparta had a different form of government. “it is made up of oligarchy, monarchy, and democracy,
Athens was a much more superior polis compared to Sparta because the Athenians invented new ideas and creations that supported the people, such as democracy, the Athenians led the Delian League, and Sparta created the Peloponnesian League after the Athenians created their alliance, and the Athenians changed the ways of their government many times to suit the people, and the Spartans did not.
Athens was one of the largest Greek city states. (Stockton, 4). It was about one thousand square miles (Stockton, 4). Athens was founded in the 8th century BC (Muller). It was at first ruled by the college of archons. (Muller). After a term of one year, the archons became members of the Council of Elders (Muller). The people had a voice in the popular assembly, the Ekklesia (Muller). However, it did not have real power until 600 BC. By then, it was an established institution of Athens (Muller). It became the central policy making body in the 5th century. There were two main governmental bodies, the Assembly and the Council. (Acropolis). The Assembly was responsible for policy making. (Acropolis) The Council was responsible for administration and implementing the Assembly’s policies. Not everyone could participate in Athenian politics. Slaves, resident aliens, and women were excluded.
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.
Sparta and Athens - Explain and Contrast Both Sparta and Athens were Greek city-states. Sparta was a strict military ruled city-state where the people established themselves as a military power early. However Athens was more of a political city-state that was more involved with their economical stature than their military forces. Still changes from the Persian wars would change the powers of the city-state and somewhat unite them.
Athens and Sparta were both city-states in Classical Greece. While Athens embraced democracy, Sparta was a dictatorial fierce warrior state. Sparta was a militaristic community, Athens was a freethinking, and commerce minded city-state. Modern societies have modeled their government organizational structure and military discipline practices from lessons learned of these ancient city-states. There is much is to be praised regarding Classical Greece for their courage, their progressive thinking and the birth of democracy. However, I think it is important to remember that in both cases, Athens and Sparta were able to sustain their lifestyle on the backs of countless slaves, non-citizens and women and that there is a darker and less romantic side to the past.
They were originally established with the intent to give most of the power to the people. The power to vote for the leaders and settle issues professionally. Both forms of governments had senates, which represented the people and helped the nations succeed, by not allowing one person to gain complete power like a king or emperor would. They both did not want kings ruling the entire kingdom, so they gave the people more power by allowing them a voice with some form of voting. Power was also given to representatives and officials in the republic and democracy. The Athenians were able to vote for legislation and bills, while the Romans elected officials to vote on the people’s behalf. The Roman’s established an aristocratic republic controlled by only wealthy people, so the power was not shared equally in society. On the contrary the Athenians allowed anyone to be in government as long as they were a male citizen. A form of the executive branch emerged from both systems; Rome had two consuls elected by council and Athens had a council of five hundred men. They both had different regulations on who was able to be a citizen. The Athenians only granted citizenship to native born males, while the Romans gave half citizenship to Italians allowing them to have full rights, but were not able to
Ancient Greece today is most known for the culture: the gods, the dramas, how people lived. What most people do not realize is that there were hundreds, maybe even thousands, of different civilizations spread throughout Greece that all had different forms of government. The three main ones were Athens, Sparta, and Miletus. Each was very different from the other. The most powerful out of all three was Sparta: a military based society. The Spartan government had a strong foundation that was all torn down by one bad leader.
The term democracy comes from the Greek language and means "rule by the people."(Democracy Building 2012) The democracy in Athens represents the events leading up to modern day democracies. Like our modern democracy, the Athenian democracy was created as a reaction to a concentration and abuse of power by the rulers. Philosophers defined the essential elements of democracy as a separation of powers, basic civil rights, human rights, religious liberty and separation of church and state. The most current definition of a democracy is defined as a “government by the people; a form of government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised directly by them or by their elected agents under a free electoral system.”(Dictionary.com). The American democracy was greatly influenced by the Athenian democracy. The Founding Fathers of the American democracy borrowed ideas from the Athenian way of governing. Presently, Americans live in a democracy that is much different than that the Athenian democracy, and what the Founding Fathers of the American Democracy envisioned. Although there are some commonalities between Athens and what our Founding Fathers intended, there are major differences as well. Differences between the modern American democracy the Athenian democracy and what the Founding Fathers envisioned are size of the democracies, the eligibility of a citizen to participate in the democracy and how a citizen participated.
These governments came in different styles such as a monarchy which was led by a king. Another form of government that was seen among the Greeks was aristocracy in which the polis was ruled by a small group of noble, land owning families. One of the more notable polis of ancient Greek was that of Sparta in which they used the oligarchy as there form of government. This type of government is where the people are ruled by a few powerful people. Finally, there was democracy which means “rule of the people” (The Legacy of Ancient Greece and Rome 1-7). This was the government that Athens utilized and helped establish. These varying types of government can be seen throughout governments today, however, it is the government established by the Athenians and their political structure that had a greater impact on the west than that of its Greek polis counterparts.
Their differences often resulted in confrontations within the region of Greece. Sparta was known for its military might and social discipline, while Athens was centered around enlightenment and economic prosperity. These two city-states were in contrast from one another. Politcally, Athens was a democracy while Sparta was a miltary dictatorship. These differences in politics often resulted in military strategies and confrontations similarly observed in modern times.
Only free men older than eighteen, in Athens could vote and take part in governmental activities; other city-states would have even less participation, only men that owned land and were sort of wealthy could decide government affairs. Now a days, using a democratic government means that everyone can vote as long as they are over eighteen years of age. The Athenian government had a three parts or branches just like how we have three different parts or branches to our democratic system. The ekklesia, boule, and dikasteria; these were the three systems of the greek democratic government. The Executive, Legislative, and Judicial; are the three branches of today´s democratic government.
Over the course of history several nations have adopted democracy. The American colonies developed the first modern democracy, when the American Revolution “prompted a call for a new type of government with a constitution to guarantee liberty” (“Foundations of”). The American Constitution
Democracy in Greece were mainly the Athens democracy which started to spread across the cities in Greece in the ancient era. This democracy which existed in Athens from 508 until 322 BC. Their democracy was direct democracy where there were equal rights and voting power, rules and leaders. Even though were no clear constitution but they perform well in terms of equality of law, freedom of speech, voting rights and the participation in governance. The end of democracy in Greece (Athens), was an elongated sequence with dramatic moments.