Different governments have different characteristics and both pro and cons aspects to be considered. While some appear to be superior, for obvious reasons, others can carry a tremendous amount of prejudice in today’s world. In most of the Western World, however, democracy is considered the best form of government. While some can point flaws and problems with this kind of government, it’s defended by many. According to Churchill, “no one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time…” (Langworth, 2008). And the cradle of this and many others government forms was the City-States of Ancient Greece.
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While in Sparta they had a monarchy, with some kind of powerless popular representation (Brand, n.d.; Halsall, 1999), in Athens they had what is considered to be the only true democratic experience thus far, interleaved with periods of tyranny, and many other type of governments composed by an aristocracy and an oligarchy (Blackwell, 2003; Cartledge, 2011). The biggest difference between all these forms are the amount of popular participation in the political decisions. However, an additional and important distinction between these forms are the occupants of important public …show more content…
This means that the people hold control of its destiny, voting in every decision and being able to be elected to technically any public office available (Blackwell, 2003). However, it’s well known that not all the people participated in this hectic political life in the Ancient Athens, being the slaves, and women, not eligible for the public offices nor allowed to vote (Brand, n.d.). Moreover, some can argue that this openly democratic system allowed for a kind of tyrannical government, the “dictatorship of the proletariat” (Blackwell, 2003), and others like Thucydides and Plato blamed this system directly for the Ancient Athens fall (Brand, n.d.). Tyranny can be defined as an oppressive government, and virtually all government forms discussed here can turn into a tyrannical system, including democracy.
In conclusion, the Ancient Greece experienced many forms of government, and it was the very place where the most famous of them was invented: democracy. All of these have their own characteristics, and some of them evolved greatly during the time, transforming many original aspects and becoming something sensibly better, like, the monarchy. Regardless of the government form, tyranny is always a possibility, and we, the people, should remain in constant alert towards our politicians, in order to avoid such terrible
While in Sparta they had a monarchy, with some kind of powerless popular representation (Brand, n.d.; Halsall, 1999), in Athens they had what is considered to be the only true democratic experience thus far, interleaved with periods of tyranny, and many other type of governments composed by an aristocracy and an oligarchy (Blackwell, 2003; Cartledge, 2011). The biggest difference between all these forms are the amount of popular participation in the political decisions. However, an additional and important distinction between these forms are the occupants of important public …show more content…
This means that the people hold control of its destiny, voting in every decision and being able to be elected to technically any public office available (Blackwell, 2003). However, it’s well known that not all the people participated in this hectic political life in the Ancient Athens, being the slaves, and women, not eligible for the public offices nor allowed to vote (Brand, n.d.). Moreover, some can argue that this openly democratic system allowed for a kind of tyrannical government, the “dictatorship of the proletariat” (Blackwell, 2003), and others like Thucydides and Plato blamed this system directly for the Ancient Athens fall (Brand, n.d.). Tyranny can be defined as an oppressive government, and virtually all government forms discussed here can turn into a tyrannical system, including democracy.
In conclusion, the Ancient Greece experienced many forms of government, and it was the very place where the most famous of them was invented: democracy. All of these have their own characteristics, and some of them evolved greatly during the time, transforming many original aspects and becoming something sensibly better, like, the monarchy. Regardless of the government form, tyranny is always a possibility, and we, the people, should remain in constant alert towards our politicians, in order to avoid such terrible