Forms of Government in Ancient Greece Poleis

University of The People

Greek city-states ruled their populace through different governmental systems. Each polis was unique in its form of government and the latter, the type of the government, had undergone quite a few changes over time. Aristotle categorized types of government in Ancient Greece into monarchies, oligarchies, tyrannies, and democracies(Carr, 2017).

Monarchies, a ruling system in which total power rests with one person or a family, were the norm in the early ages of Greek, about 2000 BC and after, which is an era known as the Bronze Age(ContessaD, 2012). This form of government was represented either by kingdoms or empires. Sparta is a good example of this system. Though, I would not call it a monarchy because true power was in the hand of the Guerousia and the Ephors, which makes it more of an oligarchy. Later in the ages before the Archaic period, things started to change in city-states and few monarchies, and later most governments in Greek turned into oligarchies. An oligarchy is a type of government in which a very small group of people, determined by nobility, religiousness, or any other criterion, held the power and ruled the populace of the country or, in case of Greek, the city-state(Carr, 2017). The social, economic, and political changes in city-states kept showing and demonstrating the flaws in these ruling systems, and so city-states tried, or better yet,