Polis Essay

The current governmental system employed by Western society is based on the ancient Greek concept of the polis. In order to comprehend how the West came to adopt the principles of democracy in the early modern period, it is integral to build one’s understanding of the ideas surrounding the establishment and maintenance of the Polis during the dark and classical ages in Greek history. For instance, prior to the development of democracy in Greek city-states, Greek poleis went through periods of oligarchical and tyrannical governmental regimes whose policies served the aristocracy at the detriment of the poorer classes. Of the two prominent poleis Athens is the primary city-state that embodies the qualities of the polis outlined by Aristotle.

What makes a polis? What qualities must a city embody in order to be considered a polis? A polis is defined as a collection of villages that creates a united community large enough to sustain themselves for a long period of time, which continues to exist for the sake of its citizens . The establishment of the polis is based on the principles of family. Similar to how a family satisfies a man with his everyday wants and needs, the polis should strive to satisfy the wants and needs of its citizens. The secondary characteristic that is associated with the polis is the idea of citizenship and who has the

The Spartan governmental system was the most unique and efficient government in the ancient Greek world, it comprised of an oligarchy combined with a monarchy and democracy. This complex system of government makes the Spartan government more efficient from the Athenian system, but it also restricted the amount of power ordinary people had in governmental affairs. The power the assembly (a collection of men over 30) possessed in Sparta was the power to either rubber-stamp or veto decisions the ephors had made . Although Sparta had an elected dual monarchy, this was enacted to act as a counter-balance system so that the monarch could not abuse their power. The ephors were the group in Spartan government who had the power to declare war, supervise that the kings did not abuse their power; if necessary the ephors had the right to impeach the king . Much like Sparta, Athens had a governmental system that alienated the poorer population, sometimes resulting in the poor selling themselves as slaves in order to pay off their debts. However, during the golden age, Athens abandoned its aristocratic and tyrannical governments when Solon and Cleisthenes started to introduce democracy to the Athenian people. Solon forgave all of the debts of the poor and restructured the legislative process, whereas Cleisthenes strove to build in Solon’s ideas