MHI-01: ANCIENT AND MEDIEVAL SOCITIES
Course Code: MHI-01
Assignment Code: MHI-01/AST/TMA/2016-17
Total Marks: 100
3. Analyse the transition to democracy in ancient Greek civilization.
The pattern of
development of ancient Greece represents an exception during the age of
empires. Greece was unique in that it was the centre of a great civilization
but did not develop into an empire or even a territorially large political
state. The historical experience of Greece therefore needs to be examined from
the point of view of its distinctiveness. The most important feature of the
period is conflict of landed aristocracy with peasants, and transition to
democracy.
The Greek
aristocracies were close-knit hereditary elites. They enjoyed power not merely
because of their wealth but more significantly by virtue of their birth. The
aristocratic families automatically held all executive, judicial, and military
positions. That is why we refer to the political structures of the Greek states
during the Archaic Period as being oligarchical in nature. The tyrants struck
at the roots of this oligarchical control, thereby creating conditions for the
transition to democracy. During the course of the Archaic Period a number of
Greek states evolved into democracies. Some of the earliest democracies that we
have information about were those of Chios and Megara where democratic
institutions had come into existence around c. 600 BC.
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