A Spartan's life was centered on the state, because they lived and died to serve the state. Although the competing city-states of Sparta and Athens were individually different as well as governmentally diverse, they both managed to become dominating powers in Ancient Greece. The political power of Athens is based on economic power. Democracy is based on middle class economic power. In slow evolution towards democracy, as their trade increased, Athenian craftsmen and merchants had enough money to purchase their own weapons.
The helots were serfs that consisted of people that were overtaken by Spartans military victories. These people had to give half their profits to the Spartan citizens that owned the lands they lived in. (History.com Spartans) The male and female roles of Sparta were vastly different compared to Athens. Male Spartans lived their lives trying to be the strongest warrior. Being a warrior was an honor and every Spartan man wanted to fight for Sparta.
All of the citizens could belong to the Assembly, and they voted by lottery because they thought election favored the rich, and they wanted it to be equal. They also had a system called the ostracism, in which the citizens would write the name of an undesirable politician and if they person's name appeared more than 6,000 times, he could be removed. The conflicts Athens and Sparta caused many important events in World History. Their lack of unity as a region hurt, but also at the same time helped both city-states and the region. Even though the city-states had many differences eventually they united as and are still united
Without this hallmark, ordinary people do not have a say in the way the country is run. In 1832 came the passing of the 1832 Reform Act (The Great Reform Act), which was the first reform of the system of Parliamentary representation since the 16th century. The 1832 Reform Act meant that only 1 in 7 men could vote, and this was restricted to the very wealthy, landowning class, meaning that only their views and opinions were expressed and represented in parliament. Because of this, the rich landowning classes stayed in power. However, because of the changes in
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
The Spartans' extreme denial of individuality fostered a powerful sense of belonging that other Greeks envied, and Sparta continues to cast an eerie spell over historians, philosophers, and political scientists even in an age that tends to recoil from totalitarianism. Despite the interest the Spartans sparked in their contemporaries, it is surprisingly difficult to write the history of Sparta And of its surrounding territory, Laconia. The problem is not lack of sources. Though unfortunately all the sources concentrate on upper-class and royal Spartiates and provide little information about the majority of the population of the territory of Laconia--the servile masses known as helots and the large disfranchised free class known as perioikoi --still the volume of ancient writing on Sparta is large. In the course of their narratives on Greek history, the two greatest Greek historians, Herodotus and Thucydides, reveal a
The reason Sparta had so many levels of government was because they had to control and limit the kings in case they got too much power. In contrast, Athens was a democracy, which meant that it was ruled by the people. However democracy in ancient Athens was quite different from the way it is practised today. Athens was a direct democracy were every decision was made by a big group of eligible citizens in some cases there were more than 6000 citizens involved. The Athenians also had a council of 500 men called the boule.
Athenian Democracy | | |Democracy in Athens was not perfect but it was better than other government systems around in the 5th century. Much of this| |is owed to a few key figures in Athenian history including Solon, Cleisthenes, and Pericles. Initially, Athenian democracy | |was triggered by the economic upheavals that led to Solon’s rise in the 4th century. And later by political upheaval that | |led to first, the overthrow of Pisistratus’ son, Hippias, and second, the rise of Cleisthenes based on his seeking the | |direct support of the people through demokratia. In this way, Cleisthenes moved Athens from an oligarchy to a democracy.
Historians have suggested it as a response to growing concerns about the outnumbering helot population revolting. The Spartan society consisted basically of Spartiates or citizens, tradesmen and helots (slaves). The Spartiates left their land to be worked by helots and lived their lives as professional warriors. Reports of the Spartan way of life are often biased as very few written sources are left from the Spartans themselves. The long kept system unravelled after defeat at the battle of Leuctra in 371 BC.
If they weren't merchant class workers who peddled their wares at the Agora, any goods they required would be bought there. Sparta on the other hand, was not as lucky. Though they had large amounts of fertile land they could use for both trade as well as to feed themselves with, their population was too large to be sustained on agriculture alone. Therefore, they had to rely on the conquest and enslaving of bordering nations, in order to grow their society, as well as to simply survive. Though all of these differences contributed to the idealogical barrier between both Athens and Sparta, none were more dividing than the Social practices that ruled their everyday society, as well as the ideologies of their people.