Essay On Ancient Greek Democracy

Introduction

In Ancient Greek, there was no center government nor empire to control the city-states. Instead, each city-state was self-governed resulting in many different format of governments. These different formats of governing developed independently in different city-states and was experimented by these entities for their success if not could be changed. This paper will compare and contrast, aristocracy, tyranny, oligarchy, and democracy as forms of government in Ancient Greek city-states.

Monarchy

Monarchy which is a system of governing that power is sovereignty held by a single person was not very popular in Ancient Greek but was practice by some city-states. The most popular monarchies were those of Mecedonia and Epeiros and the

Most of the Ancient Greek city-states practice democracy as their system of government although only Athens is well-known for it democracy. In Athens, the Assembly could meet at least once a month or even two to three times a month. Any male citizen of age 18 or above could speak and vote in the Assembly. Their voting system was simply a show of hands. Those who attended the Assembly could even get some pay which was a kind of motivation to lure more citizens to participate. As only male of age 18 and above were considered citizens who could participate in the Assembly, this made the number of actively participants in politics really small. As a result, power was mostly dominated by the wealthiest, most influential, and the best speakers. The Assembly could discuss issues from deciding magistracies, maintaining food supply to debating military matters. The Boule could choose which topic to be discussed and which not to. The Boule also known as council of 500 citizens was chosen by lot and had a limited term of office. This was the executive branch of the Assembly. In times or crisis or war, the Boule could take decisions without the Assembly. The court of law could challenge the decision of the