Spartan Government Flashcards
What are the four branches of the Spartan government?
- Dual Kingship
- The Gerousia
- The Ephorate
- The Assembly
What was the overall contemporary view of the Spartan government? What did people disagree on? How was Sparta unlike any other Greek state?
- Philosophers and observers praised the Spartan form of government
- People disagreed on whether it was oligarchic or democratic
- Sparta retained the hereditary kingship
Define the term oligarchy
- A form of government where political power effectively rests with a small elite segment of society, distinguished by royalty, wealth, family. military power or occult spiritual hegemony
Define the term democracy
- A form of government in which the supreme power is held completely by the people under a free electoral system
Define the term Tyranny
- When one has taken power by their own means as opposed to hereditary or constitutional power
How did Aristotle classify the Spartan government?
- Could not decide if it was a democracy or tyranny
How did Plato classify the Spartan government?
- Described it as a happy mixture of democracy and oligarchy
How did Cicero classify the Spartan government?
- Called it a “mixed constitution”
What form of government did Sparta prefer? How do we know this?
- Oligarchy
- The number of enfranchised Spartans was very small and this privileged body of Spartan peers ruled a huge population of Perioikoi and Helots
What were the two democratic branches of the Spartan government?
- The Assembly
- The Ephorate
Who was the Spartan system democratic for? For whom was it not?
- Democratic for full Spartiates
- Non-full citizens had practically nil democratic rights
Was the Spartan constitution well-balanced? What advantage did it have over Athens?
- Fairly well-balanced
- It avoided some of the weaknesses of the radical form of democracy in Athens
What does Thucydides tell us of the Spartan Constitution and the effect it had on other states? (quote)
- “for four-hundred years and more, until the end of the Peloponnesian War, the Lakedaemonians have had the same constitution, through which they have been able to bring about change in other states”
