Athens was more worried about the comfort and culture during the time of the military battles. The oligarchy in Sparta put a war like attitude as it's first priority and it met the needs of Ancient Greece. Athens did not have the best form of government because it did not give the citizens of Greece more freedom. The Athenian democracy can not be called a true democracy because there was several flaws in the governement and how it worked. Only the
He created what is known today as direct democracy where you specifically pick your leaders as it differs from Rome’s republic where you elect people to represent you. If it weren’t for the intellect of the Greeks, Rome would never have been so powerful. They also wouldn’t of come up with western civilization
The Spartiates were the military leaders who ruled the barracks. Only these males that served in the military could vote. The Perioeci were the artisans, craftsmen, and merchants. Even though these males were in the army, they could not vote. The helots were serfs that consisted of people that were overtaken by Spartans military victories.
Build a navy – they voted. Athens had public officials – but they were chosen by lottery – another way to | |participate. To ensure that these officials did not become too powerful their power was limited by short terms and limits | |on the ability to hold the same role more than once. But, there were lots of these roles so many could participate. | |[Of course, the Athenian democracy also had problems.
Also, despite the Reichstag having some control over the defence budget, the military was not actually accountable to the Reichstag and did not have full control over the budgets. Another weakness of parliamentary democracy within the Reichstag is the limited powers within legislation as its primary function was to debate, yet the only members that could debate were of a certain class as members were not paid so those of lower classes could not stand for elections. Therefore, it is highly debatable as to how democratic the Reichstag was as it seems to be inaccessible for those of lower
These critics, including Thucydides, believed that “the democracy had… driven them to sink more and more resources in a losing proposition” because they didn’t want to fail and in turn, an oligarchy was formed in June 411 8 But ultimately this same oligarchy disbanded, was replaced by another form of government, and eventually democracy prevailed. Democracy won out in the end for Athens which caused the other Greek city-states to want this type of government and look to Athens to help them. This proves that Athens was overall the schoolmaster of Greece, and utilized an advanced system to govern their people, despite critics’ complaints about
In slow evolution towards democracy, as their trade increased, Athenian craftsmen and merchants had enough money to purchase their own weapons. These armed ordinary people formed the phalanx which made the aristocratic cavalry obsolete. On the other hand, the Spartan constitution reputedly introduced by semi legendary Lycurgus in 600 B.C. to reflect their deep conservatism and made a minimal concession to democracy. Their authority was carefully kept in the hands of the elders.
The Greeks and Romans were two strong societies that brought great things to the Mediterranean. These two societies although always thought to be the same, were far more different than alike in a number of ways from the way they lived to how they treated women. The Roman society adopted many things from the Greeks, but always adding their own beliefs or style. One difference was the styles of governing. The Greeks were a democratic society, believing that the power should be given to a group of men instead of only a single leader.
We have already seen that women and slaves are not capable of living this kind of life, although each of these groups has its own kind of virtue to pursue. But there is another group that is incapable of citizenship leading to virtue, and Aristotle calls this group “the vulgar”. These are the people who must work for a living. Such people lack the leisure time necessary for political participation and the study of philosophy: “it is impossible to pursue the things of virtue when one
The term 'democracy'—or more precisely, the original (ancient Greek) version of the word—was coined in ancient Athens in the 5th century BC. That state is generally seen as the earliest example of a system corre-sponding to some of the modern notions of democratic rule. However, many do not see ancient Athens as a democracy since only a minority had the right to vote, women, slaves, and foreigners being excluded from the franchise. Only an estimated 16% of the total population had the right to vote. However, the ancient Athenian vote applied to making decisions directly, rather than voting for representatives as is seen with modern democracy.