Spartan Government

 Spartan Branches of Government

• Dual Kingship
• The Gerousia
• The Ephorate
• The Assembly

View of the Government

• Philosophers and observers praised the Spartan form of government
• Disagreement came when trying to figure out what to call it - Oligarchic/Democratic
• Unlike some Greek states Sparta retained the hereditary kingship

Political Terms

• Oligarchy:
• A form of government where political power effectively rest with a small elite segment of society distinguished by royalty, wealth, family, military powers or occult spiritual hegemony
• Democracy:
• A form of government in which the supreme power is held completely by the people under a free electoral system
• Tyranny:
• One who has taken power by their own means as opposed to hereditary or constitutional power

Difficulty in Classification

• Aristotle:
• Could not decide if it was a democracy or a tyranny
• Plato:
• Described it as a happy mixture of democracy and oligarchy
• Cicero:
• Called it a 'mixed constitution'

Oligarchic Form of Government

• No doubt the Spartan government was an oligarchic one. Why?
• The number of enfranchised Spartans was very small and this privileged body of Spartan peers ruled a huge population of perioikoi and helots
• Sparta always favoured oligarchic rule - particularly in allied states

Oligarchy mixed with Democracy

• Democratic aspects:
• The institution of the assembly
• The institution of the Ephorate
• Democratic, but who for?
• The system was democratic if you were a full Spartiate. If you were not a full citizen then democratic rights were practically nil

Spartan Constitution

• Spartiates
• Fairly well-balanced constitution - one which avoided some of the weaknesses of the radical form of democracy found in Athens
• "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" - Thucydides 1.18