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Features of democratic athens
The development of democratic government in Athens
Democracy in athens essay
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When in Rome Rome has a better system than Athens in my opinion. Athens citizens have more responsibility and rights then Rome. Rome has more of a family oriented style of citizenship. Athens and rome both honored citizenship in their own ways equally.
Sparta was about fitness, survival, and war while Athens was about public speaking, debate, and music. As you may see, Sparta and Athens may seem like two whole different worlds, and it’s clear that they deemed each value of theirs’ important, but which city-state would go to great length to preserve that value? Sparta was more committed to their cultural value than Athens. Spartans valued military power. For instance, “Their whole lives were about military training even after 30 the Spartan boys were required to serve the military until they were 60” (Document 2).
Ancient Greece is a land consisting of many city-states, called poleis. Each polis had its own government, set of laws, rulers, and customs. Two of the most famous and influential city-states were Sparta and Athens. Sparta is better than Athens because their army was powerful and protective, girls received some education and women had more freedom than in other poleis. There are many reasons why Sparta is more superior to Athens.
Unlike the Romans, Athenians had a strict but fair schedule that allowed them to enjoy citizenship equally. Equally, hard workers have brought Athens power just as much as hereditary leaders. According to Document B all citizens should be allowed to speak their opinion and have a share in election because of the hard work they do to make the city powerful. Athenians allowed poor and common men to win a position in government which was a transition from the wealthy having power to everyone having power.
The Romans had a system of indirect democracy where the people had the power to vote for representatives who would advocate for them on the state level. The Greeks had a government in which the people directly were involved in the governmental and legislative process. In addition, both systems were flawed in their representation of their people in their respective governments through neglecting a large portion of their population. Both societies did well to create term lengths to decrease the likelihood of corruption and abuse of power through creating accountability. However, the Greek democracy was a caliber above its counterpart.
Athens and Sparta have proven to provide strong governmental structure to help lead to each city-state’s success. Athens
Athens and Sparta, located between the Aegean and the Ionian Sea, allied with each other in the Greco-Persian war. Due to the advanced and powerful navy of Athens incorporation with the well-built army of Sparta, they gained victory over the Persian Empire. After the victory, Athens gained wealth and dominance over the other Greek societies causing tensions between Sparta. They both share similarities towards their cultural background but had different views in creating an ideal society in addition to their state’s place in the world. Moreover, they differ from the concepts of a well trained or educated society and a well built military, but share similarities in their government format.
In this essay, I would like to answer and discuss the following questions: How did the 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 two city-states similar in their governmental structures and how did they differ with each other? For the Spartans the right to participate and made important decisions from the entire community were only exercised by the adult and legitimate male citizens of Sparta.
Sparta vs. Athens To begin with, Athens and Sparta were both famous in antiquity for their legend, cultures and the character of the people. On the one hand, the two poleis share certain obvious affinities, such as language, geographical scope, a common Greek ancestry etc. On the other hand, they were polar opposites in many aspects, from social spheres, political structures, to military might, which I believe there are some hidden depths in these city-states. Hence, let’s look at how did their people obtain the right to participate in public life and make decisions affecting the community, and who held public office first.
The Athenian and the Spartan civilizations were very unique and different but the people shared many similar ideas. The Athenians believed that their government was original and that everyone should participate directly in government. On the other hand, the Spartans believed that every man should train for the military. Both the Spartans and Athenians believed in an equal society where the members were devoted to the polis. During this time, Athens supported a democracy.
There were many cases of bribery in the government that wasn't taken seriously by the court. In Sparta power was given to citizens through the assembly which consisted of all male citizens in Sparta, but in theory anyone could participate. The government had an elaborate system of checks and balances to make sure that no branch had more power than another. Also contrary to popular belief the Spartans treated there slaves bette than the Athenians. The slaves in Sparta were actually known as helots who were lower class citizens.
The ancient Romans and Greeks both began their legacy as a city-state; both of them are Mediterranean cities. Ancient Rome and ancient Greece both played a huge role in historic dynasty yet they are both different. Ancient Greece came to light after researches were made. The empire of Athens only lasted 5 years, where Rome 's empire lasted 500 years. Sculptures, paintings and architecture differ in each civilization.
As far as democracy is concerned, critics of democracy, such as Thucydides and Aristophanes, both are pinpointing on that the demos in which that they thought that it could be too easily swayed by a good orator or popular leaders the firebrand and get carried away with their emotions. Democracy Democracy in Athens the government officials are chosen by sweepstakes and worked for 1 year for proposing and enforcing decrees but didn’t have much individual power. Democracy in Athenian government the way that the citizens pass a vote is getting done, in elected by the assembly annually for making decisions about military matters and by showing hands.
Athens was better than Sparta because, it had a better government, education system, and had more cultural achievements. One element of Athens that made it the better city-state was the government. While in Sparta they had an oligarchy, a form of government in which the government power resides in the hands of select few; however in Athens they had a direct government. Direct government is where all the citizens participate directly in the government, by voting on laws, placement of public works, etc. Instead of a few individuals having a say in what happens, everybody can be heard and have an equal say.
Introduction Monarchy, aristocracy, tyranny, oligarchy and democracy were all forms of government found at different times and in different city-states in Ancient Greece. Elements of more than one of these forms also co-existed, however, and the modern connotations of labels such as these are not necessarily the same as those that prevailed in Ancient Greece. In this paper I firstly describe these various forms of government and provide examples of their use in Ancient Greece. I then compare and contrast the models.