Political Systems In Ancient Greece

Ancient Greece has had many political systems throughout its history; they have ranged from monarchies, tyranny, oligarchy, and democracy forms of governments. We will walk through a few examples of Greek history to compare and contrast some of the most popular city-states and their forms of government inline with the four political systems previously stated.

The most famous monarchy in Greek history would have to be The Spartan city-state. It was famous for having a two-king tiered system. It also shared similarities of a democracy with a state assembly. The kings main power was during times of war, while the state assembly elected Ephors whom were advisors to the king of policies from the Citizen Assembly. There was a third area of political overlap with The Gerousia branch, which consisted of elite older males of 60 years of age; kings although were allowed to be members at an earlier age because of their status. Kings could be put on trial and exiled by their

Athen's political structure is known to many as the birthplace of Democracy, and has been modeled and referenced many times throughout history as an influence in building the United States own political system. Athens democratic government consisted of Citizens Assembly; a smaller and more executive body called the council of 500 which ran the day to day tasks. In times of war a group of 10 generals were key decision makers. Athens government did have influence of an Oligarchical system which limited power from the majority of the citizen body. Mark Cartwright (Cartwright, 2013) explains, "We know that in 411 BCE in Athens, 'the oligarchy of the 400' took power out of the hands of the Assembly and were themselves superseded by a more moderate oligarchy of