Among many advanced democracies of the ancient world, the most advanced and stable democracy was in Athens. The period from the middle of the 5th century until the middle of the 4th BC was the apogee of the development of democracy in Athens. It shall be noticed, that ever since the Solomon reforms democratization of the political power structure began in Athens.
Antique community as a community of citizens was the basis of the Athenian political hierarchy. This community did not include completely the entire population of Athens. Most part of the Athens` society included slaves and metics together. Despite this, the whole system of the polis of Athens was created exclusively for the citizens of Athens (Lang & Camp 18).
The very appearance of the concept of "citizen" spoke of an unprecedented flowering of culture and philosophy of the Greeks. After all, people of eastern despotic states had not even heard of such a thing as citizenship. A citizen in Athens was, above all, the individual person, that had all the necessary; and inalienable rights were the basis of his life. The National Assembly, the Council of the Areopagus and the Council of "five hundreds" jointly ruled in Athens (Lang & Camp 19).
Spartan society was very different. Of course, civil rights were paramount, but, unlike the Athenian democratic character of the state system, oligarchy dominated in the Spartan society (Sparta, “The political system of Sparta”).
Spartan People's Assembly, or Apella, had less power than Athens` Council of the Areopagus. The main difference laid in the fact that it, unlike a representative state body in Athens, had no right to discuss the draft law. Apella was meeting regularly, it was happening by the will of the top leaders. Judicial supervision, control for the magistrates, the budget issue – all these were not within the competence of Apella in Sparta, at the contrary with the Athens` society (Sparta, “The political system of Sparta”).
Spartan system was different from Athens system also with the independence of organs of authorities from each other. For example, the board of Eforie and Gerontopsychiatry Council did not have to obey the citizens` assembly, but they included the oligarchic elite (Sparta, “The political system of Sparta”).
It can be concluded that state system and all the structures of power and economy of Athens and Sparta were different from each other. For this reason, the result of a conflict between two different political and economic systems became famous Peloponnesian War.
Works Cited
Ancient Wars Sparta. “The political system of Sparta”. Ancient Wars Sparta. N.d. Web. 19 Jan. 2016.
Lang, M., and John McK. Camp. The Athenian Citizen: Democracy in the Athenian Agora. Athens: ASCSA, 2004. Print.
