Greek Polis

Ancient Greek city-states had a number of important characteristics that laid the foundation for modern western civilization. The concept of a polis outlines a geographic area with political, social and economic sovereignty. The polis was physically made up of both the city center and the surrounding agricultural lands. This enabled the polis to be both economically independent and interdependent. Socially and politically, the people within the bounds of the polis worked together to form a sovereign government. This government allowed for three things: the formation of a body of men to serve as the military; the formation of learned men to serve in the government; and the idea of a collective group of people that were to be associated with that polis, for example: Athenians.

The last part of the concept of a polis is what separated it from previous civilizations. The idea of a sovereign group of people associating themselves with a single geographic area and its political and economic activities was different than previous organizations. Consider the feudal lands spread far and wide but ruled by a distant king that may have nothing to do with the local people and their beliefs. In this case, the people were actually ruling themselves. These fundamental concepts of a polis also illustrate the similarities between the Greek polis and modern western civilizations.

However, there are some significant differences between the polis and modern society. For example, our cities and states are not organized in a geographic fashion which includes an agricultural area and an urban center. Our cities and states are also not necessarily sovereign. Although the United States affords individual states the opportunity to govern themselves while also enjoying the benefits of a central and unifying federal government, each state does not stand on its own. Further, as the developed world becomes more interconnected both politically and economically, it is less likely that even countries could be considered sovereign and independent. and, as is clear in the United States, it is not only are educated men that band together to form the collective intelligence and governing body of the city, state or nation.

References

Carledge, Paul. (1998). Cambridge Illustrated History: Ancient Greece. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Drews, R. (1988). The Coming of the Greeks. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Pomeroy, S., Burstein S., Donlan, W., Roberts, J. (1999). Ancient Greece: A Political, Social and Cultural History. New York: Oxford University Press.