Ancient Greek and Ancient Roman Democracy Essay

One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors. PlatoThe question at hand is whether there were any similarities that light-emitting diode to the buy the farm of Ancient Greek and roman type democracies. This essay will discuss how wars and territorial expansion led to a rise in populism, which brought political chaos, and how it is the wakeless ground of the decline of commonwealth in Ancient Greece and Rome.The first forms of democracy drawed in Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome. In Ancient Greece, democracy and politics were to a greater extent than related to the Athenian city-state because Sparta was more of a military dictatorship than any other city-state in the region. As for Rome, the brief period between the Roman res publica and the Roman Empire, k like a shotn as the Roman land, came to be a symbol of democracy in the Ancient Roman time period. Though democracy is specify as a form of government i n which its people make decisions that directly influence their daily lives, the ancient forms of democracy were slightly different. It is clear that the Athenian city-state was more democratic than the Roman Republic, but both had forms of oligarchy that tampered with the image of ideal democracy. The Roman Republic had its Senate, and the Athenian city-state had its Areopagos, groups of aristocrats that usually dominated the regions politics. nearly sources even suggest that Rome never became a democracy in the sense that they (the citizens) ever controlled the government for long.But whatever democracy existed in these areas was short-lived. tear down though these democracies existed in different time periods, they had similar reasons to their downfall. Scholars suggest that these democracies fell because of the sheer landmass each had to control after their numerous victories. The Roman Republic stretched the Italian Peninsula and controlled parts of Northern Africa Athens rul ed much of mainland Greece and the Ionian states (the Delian League basically put the Ionian states under Athenian subjection) along the Mediterranean coastline. The records built for Athens and the Roman Republic were figuratively too small to control these newly added territories. Since the constitutions were made only to satisfy the populations of the homeland itself, the constitutions had gaps in which politicians abused, in the long runleading to political corruption. Another cause reasoned for the downfall of democracies in both states is the democracies fallout with their common citizens. Citizens of Rome and Athens consequently wanted a single strong ruler after years of war had created panic among all levels of government. However, though these two reasons are valid, there was another significant cause for the fall of these two democracies.The rise of populism in both the Athenian city-state and the Roman Republic was crucial to the deterioration of their democracies. The Athenian city-state fought many wars such as the Iranian Wars and the Peloponnesian Wars. To fight these wars, the Athenians needed income. The common Athenian citizen had to fund the war, similar to the Roman Plebeians and their war taxes, creating heavy discrepancies between the rich and poor. This in turn coat the way for many populist reforms reforms that favored the working class most importantly, Pericles reforms. Pericles removed the property restrictions on army enlistment to provide more forces in the Athenian war machine. This reform, along with the previous reform of Cleisthenes that enlarged the Council of 400 to five-hundred people, allowed for the involvement of a large part or even the completely of the citizen body in the states affairs, giving the citizens too much power. Citizens, whom had no experience in politics, started to make decisions for the Athenian public.This proved detrimental in Second Peloponnesian War, when Athens could not effectively place i ts troops because of quarrels within the Council of 500 (and a weakened Areopagos due to Pericles reforms), leading to a master that nearly crumbled the existing form of democracy in Athens. This inefficiency of the government moved citizens and thinkers, such as Plato, to view democracy as an ineffective form of rule. Citizens now shifted their sights to Macedonia as their only hope for survival. The case for the Roman Republic is similar. The plebeians funded wars which created discrepancies between the Patrician class and the Plebeians. This allowed the Patricians to dominate the states resources, such as land, which started to spend the economy of the Republic. To counter these movements, reformers such as the Gracchus brothers and Gaius Marius turned to populist ideals to gain a strong plebeian holding.In trying to do so, the reformers disobeyed many of the constitutions preexisting laws which broughtpolitical instability Tiberius Gracchus tried to illegally obtain another ye ar as tribune, resulting in the first daggers in the forum, Gaius Gracchus tried to start a plebeian reform, which failed, and Gaius Marius and Sulla created a clash between the populares and optimares, creating conflict within Rome. These attempts at populist reforms seemingly started a trend within politicians to spelunk the authority of the Roman constitution. Sulla was elected dictator for two consecutive terms Roman law only allowed for a single term in case of national emergency and Julius Caesar declared himself dictator-for-life and crossed the Rubicon into Rome with his troops, which were both illegal. All of these attempts at populist reforms created confusion amongst the Roman public, whom now viewed dictatorships more pleasurable than the current Republic mess. After the assassination of Julius Caesar, Octavion took over, marking the end of the Roman Republic.As discussed above, wars were the backbone to the populist movements. It is important to note, however, that i n Ancient Greece, the fall was associated more with the populist reforms itself, and that in Ancient Rome, the fall was associated more with the push for populism, rather than the reforms itself. Another rather interesting fact was that the increase in democracy in Greece actually led to the demise of the democracy itself. However, in all, populism was a common factor that brought the collapse of the democracies in Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome. 1 . Roberts, J. M. The make of the Roman World. The Penguin History of Europe. London, England Penguin, 1997. 51. Print. 2 . Roberts, J. M. Ancient Greece. The Penguin History of Europe. London, England Penguin, 1997. 31. Print. 3 . A term used to describe the first appearance of violence in the Roman General Assembly it is blamed for start of the disregard of the Roman constitution by many politicians to follow.