Monarchy, Tyranny, Oligarchy And Democracy

The following paragraphs will define the terms monarchy, aristocracy, tyranny, oligarchy and democracy in Ancient Greece context. The conclusion of this overview will compare their meanings.

To begin, Monarchy refers to the power of government being solely in the hands of one person. This instance would be a King, or dictator-like position that owns single control over all decisions. The exercise of power may have varied and generally a King inherited this power. The ruler had supreme power in this instance and all people would have had to adhere to this control.

Next, an aristocracy is when the power rests in a small group of people. This group is exclusive to wealthy individuals and thus would distinguish the ruling class of privileged

individuals from the rest of the society. Aristocrats did not have ultimate power as they had to report to their supreme ruler, the King. No action or order could be implemented without the King's approval.

Next, a tyranny is like a monarchy in that power rests in the hands of a sole individual, in a dictatorship instance. This means that the ruler came into power by force, rather than inherited power. Here, the ruler has complete control of the population and the people have no rights.

Moving along to an oligarchy, which could be likened to an aristocracy in that only the wealthy individuals ruled here. However, this instance was harsher since an oligarchy is more purposefully suppressive of the lower class. The few wealthiest individuals in the area automatically inherited a power and began to rule the less powerful around them.

Lastly, a democracy is defined by having principles of social equality where most of the population holds political power. In the context of Ancient Athens, it meant that there was no one-sole head of authoritative power, rather citizens could be elected into power. Essentially, power is held by the people, and civil duty is an elected position where a person votes on behalf of the people he represented. The goal here was for the government to be made up of the people, therefore representative of the people, and the government purpose of power is to serve the people. It should be noted that in Ancient Athens, citizenship was limited and therefore this system was rigged to be inclusive and representative of the advantaged portion of Athens population.