Public Administration and The Persian Empire

Great stories were told of the Persian Empire. An ancient civilization that molded and strengthened today's way of public administering and governing. Persian Empire is a true to life story of great leadership that turned its nation into a kingdom and influenced neighboring countries.

Governance of a country and its implementation of laws were successfully handled by its leaders. Cyrus the Great and Darius the Great were known leaders of Persia. Each leader gave the empire new set of laws to make the empire strong and stable. The addition of laws paved way to the rise of the empire. Making a glorious triumph over other countries, Persian governance were imitated by other countries but never leveled. Such strong advocacy and strong will to govern by its leaders with a trusted system to protect the sovereign ruler and its people were astonishingly displayed with character by the Persians.

A well structured government that was perfectly executed with confidence. Theories and practices of both the governance and public administration of Persia were great foundations of creating binding laws to inhibit full management by its leaders. Persia conquered antiquity with political stabilization and administrative implementation. Greatness that comes along with the names of their leaders transcends the new and modern-day governance and public administration. Immense implication of modern-day governance and public administration can be traced fully with the rise of the Persian Empire and to be exact is the Achaemenid World-State Empire which existed in 559-330 B.C..

Cyrus the Great introduced an empire where four states comprised it. It is a so-called multi-state empire encompassing the whole of Pasargadae, Babylon, Susa and Ekbatana. Pasargadae was the main capital among the four states. Each state is governed by a satrap under the satrapy system with controlled autonomy by Cyrus the Great. A general is appointed to keep military forces active while maintaining peace and order. A state secretary keeps files and records that are purposely for safe keeping. It may contain top-secret orders or missions or simply a record of government policy. A postal system was personally created by Cyrus the Great with several relay stations across the empire called ChaparKhaneh. A special unit of highly skilled and trained soldiers called Immortals is included in an army of thousand men.

When Darius the Great became the ruler, he moved the capital from Pasargadae to Persepolis. Darius revolutionized the economy of the whole empire. He actually altered the economy by silver and gold coinage. He introduced a tax system that is suited for each satrapy's condition. The tax system is based on productivity and economic output of each of the four states. Darius managed the agricultural system to provide sufficient food for the army while stabilizing the economy.

Persian legacy still linger in the air. Unified states under one ruler exists. Satraps or governors have their own state to govern. Satrapy system can be compared to a democratic system which is mostly utilized by democratic government around the world. Modern tax system and economic policies can definitely be traced and attributed from the Persian Empire's rule.