preview

Ancient Greek Government

Decent Essays

Forms of government in Ancient Greek city-states
Anonymous student
University of the People
HIST 1421
Ancient Greece consisted of a lot of independent city-states, and each of these states had their own form of government. The most known ones were: monarchy, aristocracy, tyranny, oligarchy, and democracy. Between 2000 BCE and 800 BCE, almost all city-states were ruled by monarchs. From about 800 BCE to 650 BCE, the most popular forms of government became oligarchy and aristocracy. Later on, from 500 BCE, a democratic experiment in Athens became a good example for some other Greek city-states who adopted this new form of government. Oligarchy and democracy were equally popular. Tyranny happened once in a while whenever some strong person became …show more content…

Initially, these people were usually former advisors who used to serve a monarch ("Types of Government in Ancient Greece", n.d.). What’s the difference between oligarchy and aristocracy? Aristocracy is a Greek word that is translated as “rule of the best”. Plato considered aristocracy the best form of government when philosophers rule as they know best for the good of the people ("Aristocracy", n.d.). Oligarchy is also a Greek word that means “rule of the few”. People belonging to this group of a few may not be the best. What often turned out is that the wealthiest took control of the government. That is why Aristotle named oligarchy as “rule of the rich” ("Oligarchy", …show more content…

According to his opinion, a society decays when it passes through each government in this order (oligarchy → democracy → tyranny). Plato didn’t like direct democracy for the fact that common people didn’t know philosophy, and, therefore, couldn’t make good decisions but often made unwise decisions. In fact, they were often manipulated by demagogues, who, in order to get power, act by pleasing the crowd even if public opinion is not a good idea. Plato calls such demagogues tyrants. From this and from what I have observed in our modern world politics, I can conclude that modern democracy is nothing else but a tyranny in a hidden form. Can our leaders be guided by philosophy? What philosophy will that be? How will they be able to make a

Get Access