Fundamental Institutions of Athens and Sparta Athens and Sparta shared many similarities in their styles of government, however, they also had plenty of differences. Athens was built upon democracy, whereas Sparta was built upon Oligarchy. It can be suggested that these two Greek powers created governments based upon wealth, social status, and whether or not they believed their citizens should have a say in political and social matters.
Similarities
Although Athens and Sparta rarely agreed on much, it is, in fact, possible to see similarities between their two forms of government. For instance, both believed that every person living within their jurisdiction was within the law, none were above it and none could escape it. They also both created a system of simple checks and balances by ensuring they had multiple people in power at any one time, rather than one distinct ruler. This ensured that no one leader would become a tyrant and take over everything these governments had worked so hard to
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The Athenians had a council of 500 men that met on a daily basis. This council was created yearly, by collecting all the names of male citizens over the age of 30 and pulling 500 from this list. The council was in charge of proposing new laws and taking care of day to day business. The laws that were proposed during the council meetings were then taken to a vote through the Ekklesia, or the Athenian form of assembly. The assembly met around every 10 days and had to have at least 6000 citizens present to commence. Unlike our modern democracy, only free men were considered citizens, women and slaves were not and thus, were not given a say or a vote at assembly. (Frey) The Ekklesia was located near the markets in the social center in Athens, as it was thought to help encourage participation. (Athens vs.