Essay About Different Major Forms Of Government And Time Of Many Military Battles Athens

Sparta And Athens
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In Ancient Greece there were two different major forms of government,
Oligarchy and Democracy. The two city-states that best represent each
form of government were Sparta (oligarchy) and Athens (democracy). The
democratic government in Athens, though de cently equal, fair and fairly
advanced for its time, did not meet the needs of the Greeks. During a
time of many military battles Athens decided to worry more about comfort
and culture. It is the oligarchy in Sparta that put a war-like attitude
as its first priority and best met the needs of Ancient Greece.
The Athenian democratic government, which may have given the citizens in
Greece more freedom, was not the best form of government at the time. The
democracy in Athens cannot really be called a true democracy since there
were several flaws in the governme nt and the way it worked. Only ten per
cent of the total population of Athens actually had voting rights and all
of these citizens were upper class men who were over thirty years old.
Women, no matter what the class or age, were given no freedom at all.
They were first owned by their fathers and then were passed from them to
their husbands who then gave them nothing more than the responsibilities
of managing the household and educating the children. During a meeting of
the Assembly, a policy could be adopted and formed into a law but once the
meeting of the assembly ended, the enforcement of that law was left in the
hands of people who may not agree with that specific law. Also, a rule of
the Assembly said that if a certa! in speaker became too powerful, he
could be expelled from the country if given a majority vote by the
Assembly. This rule could easily be abused and really infringed on the
freedom of speech that most democracies have. The Assembly was made up of
hundred men who were chosen from a list of those who were eligible to
serve on the council. Since most of the population was of a lower
economic class, the time taken away from their normal work by serving on
the Assembly lowered their earning potential , causing their already poor
situation to worsen. Life may have been sophisticated and graceful in
Athens but the Athenians were often mocked by opposing countries and other
city-states for having no bravery, patriotism or courage. This was shown
by the
repeated attacks on Athens. If the Athenians had a more war-like
reputation, they probably could have avoided many of those conflicts that
eventually led to the loss of the power Athens held in Ancient Greece.
In the city-state of Sparta, the government was controlled by an oligarchy
in which the power was held by a group of five men called ephors. It may
not seem very fair that the citizens had little say in the decisions made
by the government but, at the ti me, this was the better government. The
Spartans needed to give up comfort and culture for a more disciplined
military approach to control the rebelling Messenians which eventually
turned