Compare And Contrast Tyranny, Oligarchy, And Democracy As Forms Of Government

UNIVERSITY OF THE PEOPLE

HIST 1421 GREEK AND ROMAN CIVILLIATION

Written Assignment Unit 2

QUESTION

Compare and contrast monarchy, aristocracy, tyranny, oligarchy, and democracy as forms of government in Ancient Greek city-states.

The paper should be at least 500 words long with proper formatting and use of APA standards for citation. The paper should also include an introduction, body and conclusion.

Introduction

Greece was not a single political entity but rather a collection of 1,500 poleis or cities which according to Plato referred the cities as scattered round the Mediterranean and Black sea ‘like flogs around a pond’. There were those cities who were not democracies like Athens were either oligarchies-where power was in the hand of the few richest citizens or monarchies also called tyrannies’ in cases where the sole ruler had usurped power by force rather than inheritance.

The government of these city-states varied widely in its nature. To compare and contrast monarchy, aristocracy, tyranny, oligarchy, and democracy as forms of government in Ancient Greek city-states, I will therefore write about the characteristics of each

To the Greeks, the “best” people were wealthy men who had inherited large piece of land. After first, councils of aristocrats had no real power. But kings depended upon aristocrats for help during wars, since only the wealthy (300 bushel men or horse men) could afford horses and armor. The aristocrats soon realised that, as a group, they were stronger than the king hence they wanted to share in the king’s power. In some city-states, aristocrats insisted that the king should be elected instead inheriting his crown and they further suggested that the king should rule only for a certain number of years. This eventually, made aristocrats overthrow the monarchy and took power for themselves. By 800 B.C.E, kings no longer ruled most Greek