Democracy In Ancient Greece :: Ancient Greece Essays

Democracy in Ancient GreeceThe Greeks were in truth advanced for their time. They realized that they neediness a newly form of government and they were able to invent the first democraticgovernment in the world. The res publica that the Greeks came up with was basedon dickens important factors. The first mavin was the population growth in Athensgrew at a very fast rate. The second was the advocating of political, economic,and legal equality for either which some male citizens remembered from the livingconditions in the Dark Ages. The Greek system of Democracy did have its sharesof problems though.The Greek system of democracy was ruled by a body of nine electedofficials whom were called archons. These men who were aristocrats lead thegovernment and had supreme control over all of the verdicts and criminalaccusations in Athens. Problems arose when aristocrats become jealous of oneanother and rivalries ensued under the early stages of Athenian democracy. Theresult of this jealous y was the establishment of a code written by the appointedruler Draco. This code of laws promoted constancy and equity. These lawshowever did more to hurt the democracy of Athens than to help it. It seems thatDraco wrote this code of laws in order to benefit himself rather than to benefitthe government of Athens.The democracy of Athens was used in many ways other than for what it wasdesigned for. It was abused by many rulers of that time. They were concernedwith their own personal growth and because of their voraciousness and selfishness, theymade laws and codes that would benefit their own personal gain. The resultsthough have not always been as what they had expected to have been. Many of thelower classes were treated very unfairly and rulers lost popularity to the lowerclasses. Civil struggle was even about to break out at one point due to Dracoscodes and laws.When civil war almost broke out in Athens the codes and laws were onceagain revamped. This time a pathway was attempte d to be laid down that would pacify both the upper and the lower classes. In the end four classes weredeveloped to rank the male citizens of Athens based on their income. The five-hundred-measure men, horsemen, yoked men, and laborers were the four classesthat were devised by this new system of codes and laws.In the Athenian society both the theories failed the men, and in turnthe men failed the theories. Some of the theories that the rulers came up with