Compare And Contrast The Government And Athens Government

During the ancient Athenian democracy, everyone voted on everything and held power by only 15% of the population, this was also known as a direct democracy. In ancient Athens, there was no leadership position. The council contained about 500 people who were chosen randomly and at least served for one year. For the citizens assembly, all citizens voted on laws. In courts, there were 501-2500 citizen jurors, and for citizenship, only men 18 and older could be able to vote and the

To be eligible to be a part of the Gerousia, one had to be a Homoioi over 60 or a king. The elections were done by acclamation by the Apella.

This council basically ran the Athenian government, however they could only be in office for a maximum of 2

The Athenian assembly happened 40 times a year (doc E). The Athenian council of 500 people also attended (doc E). The Roman senate was originally a lower class then the consuls who once ruled over the lands of ancient Rome. The Roman senate had men rule their whole life. The Roman senate would decide on foreign relations, selecting ambassadors, making treaties, and creating alliances (doc F).

Document F, a fresco showing the Roman Senate discusses who was able to participate in the governing body of Rome. According to the document, there were 300 members of the Roman Senate. All of the members served for life. By having a small governing body, the Romans were guaranteeing that the body would be able to work together and have agreements on laws for the Empire. Also because the Senators served for life, all of the members knew how the government worked and could pass laws that were good for the Empire.

There weren’t any representation for people, the people had no say, they could only advise the selected leader.

 Leading the Council was oligarchy (small group of rulers who controlled the judicial, military, civil and religious functions of government)

When the Athenians were making their laws all 40,000 of their citizens were invited to the lawmaking process,whilst the Romans had a 300 man senate. Also the Romans had an easier way of becoming a citizen. Another way that they differ is that Athens was ruled by a council of 500 and the Roman empire was ruled by the senate and up until third century BCE Roman kings.The Roman Empire is far more superior to the Athenian city-state because of the more efficient government, better laws and more in touch citizens.

Athens and Sparta were two powerful city-states, different from each other where Athenian democracy focused on economic advancement, while Sparta oligarchy focused on military force. Democracy is a system of government where citizens have the right to vote, whereas oligarchy is a system of government where only a group of people is in control and only their opinion or decision that were taken into consideration. Leading to the thesis statement that people are better served by Athenian democracy than the Spartan oligarchy, supported in three evidence points. Firstly, Athenian democracy allowed citizens participation in government that gave them freedom to vote and take part in legislation. Secondly, the Athenian government provided Athenian men better education, by being taught how to read and write to reach their academic advancement. Lastly, the Athenian democracy’s contribution to Athens military advancement that protected its citizens.

“During the 40 annual meetings of the Ekklesia, any of the roughly 40,000 male citizens of Athens was allowed to appear and participate. That's a lot of people vying for floor time. In the U.S. this system has been improved upon with the implementation of a Congressional legislative body made up of elected senators and representatives from each state” (Classroom Synonym). Clearly in the U.S. it takes less people to make decisions then it did in Athens. The Council of Athens did not have elected leaders similar to how the United States has it today. People in the council were chosen by lottery. In America the President and his staff have to be elected. The President has executive power in the United States. In Athens, 500 men had the same power that one person has in the US. As for the Judicial branches Athens had hundreds of men on the jury and they finished court in one day. In the United States, there are 12 jury men and women and it is a very long

To begin with, both of their ways that they chose the officials were similar but also differed. The Athenian Government and the Roman Republic both had the citizens of each side choose the officials, but they both had a difference in limitations on how they chose the officials. In Athens, the citizens would vote for the officials, but the people who were official citizens were the ones who were 18 or over, born in Athens, and had to be males. This means that outsiders, slaves, or women could not vote because they were not considered citizens. Additionally, the Athenian Government system for voting was organized with citizens by the name of demes or demos; who belonged to tribes and where combined with others of the same area to make a larger group, which in turn were combined to form ten tribes. (Gill, thoughtco 2017). In contrast, citizens of Rome had to be over 15 years old, male slaves could also vote if they were granted freedom, the women were considered citizens but had no voting rights. The

Athens and Sparta were two of the most powerful and well known cities among all the Greek nations. Most would find it easier to find more similarities among these two groups of mighty people. But there are some differences between these two power houses. For instance the way that these cities were governed and their political procedures and functions were quite different from each other.

The ancient regime did not allow anyone to make much decision making, unless they were the king. Everybody was below the king and there was no national citizenship. This is important to know because of the second estate, who were more educated than the third, recognized the King's unhealthy spending habits and demanded for a reform.. Eventually, the third estate followed in the

Finally, we come to the focus of this report, that is, the Roman Senate. The Senate represented the aristocratic and elitist element of Roman government and was a collection of patrician citizens (the patrician/plebian conflict will be described in more depth later) who served as the legislative branch of the government as well as an advisory body. In the beginning of the Republic, the Senate contained 300 members, the members themselves were chosen from the patrician class, ex-consuls, and other officers who served for life. By the time that Julius Caesar gained power, the Senate's membership had increased to nearly 800 people.

The reforms of Cleisthenes established the basis for the Athenian democracy. All citizens enrolled in ten tribes and each tribe chose 50 members by lottery each year for a new council of 500 people. These 500 people had the responsibility to take care of foreign and financial affairs. There was also an assembly of all male citizens, and they had the final authority in passing laws through free and open debate. In Sparta there were two kings who led the army and ruled their city-state. There were five ephors elected each year and they were responsible for the education of the youth and the behavior of citizens. There was also a council of elders that consisted of two kings and 28 citizens over the age of 60. They decided on issues to present to the assembly who were also all male citizens. There was no debate on resolution to these issues, only voting.