Who had the first democratic system?
Like I said, I’ve been reading further afield lately, and am almost finished with Michael Grant’s The Rise of the Greeks, which is my idea of fun. Fill in this blank: “Thus in respect of basic equalities, [ ] was the first authentic, thoroughgoing democracy among the Greeks or anywhere in the world, as far ...
Like I said, I've been reading further afield lately, and am almost finished with Michael Grant's The Rise of the Greeks, which is my idea of fun. Fill in this blank: "Thus in respect of basic equalities, [ ] was the first authentic, thoroughgoing democracy among the Greeks or anywhere in the world, as far as its citizens were concerned." (P. 93, paperback)
Like I said, I’ve been reading further afield lately, and am almost finished with Michael Grant’s The Rise of the Greeks, which is my idea of fun. Fill in this blank: “Thus in respect of basic equalities, [ ] was the first authentic, thoroughgoing democracy among the Greeks or anywhere in the world, as far as its citizens were concerned.” (P. 93, paperback)
The answer is below.
Grant also says that the early Greek philosopher Anaximander was poking around with evolutionary theory, hypothesizing that “higher formers had developed from lower forerunners, so that human beings, at first a kind of fish in the water, had shed their scales on dry land so as to adjust their way of life to this new earthy medium.” (P. 162)
So what is the answer? Oddly, Sparta. He also says that Spartan women enjoyed unusual privileges, with property rights, the right to speak freely, and freedom to engage in adulterous affairs, partly “owing to the continuous and urgent need to maintain and increase the Spartan birthrate.” (P. 98) I guess this was the Spartan version of “don’t ask, don’t tell.”
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