This lesson contains 16 slides, with text slides and 4 videos.
Lesson duration is: 45 min
Items in this lesson
AGE 2. The Time of Greeks and Romans
2.2 Ancient Democracy
Slide 1 - Slide
What is this lesson about?
In Ancient Greece, the drawing of lots was considered democratic, and elections aristocratic. In Athens, daily affairs were taken care of by the boule, a council of 500 individuals. Larger matters were dealt with by the ecclesia, the people’s assembly. Bad politicians could be put on trial or banished by ostracism.
Slide 2 - Slide
Slide 3 - Slide
Important dates in this lesson:
508 BC: start of democracy in Athens
Slide 4 - Slide
What you can explain / do after this lesson
explain the term democracy
explain what forms of government the Greek poleis had
explain the two democratic assemblies in Athens
explain the term ostracism
explain the difference between a direct and an indirect democracy
Finished with this lesson? Then check if you can answer these questions in your own words.
Slide 5 - Slide
Word Duty
Democracy: system of government where the people (demos) are in charge
Aristocracy: system of government where the best (aristos) or nobles are in charge
Government: system of rules and the people who make and administer them
Citizenship: set of rights and obligations between a country and its people
Ecclesia: general assembly where all citizens gathered
Boule: council of 500 citizens in Athens that carried out everyday governing activities
Strategoi: jobs for which people were elected, for instance ship captains and generals
Ostracism: vote to ban someone from Athens
Monarchy: a country that has a king or a queen
KEY WORDS
Slide 6 - Slide
Introduction
You probably recognise source 2.2.1. Every now and then these posters appear when it is time for an election. In the Netherlands there are elections for the city council, the provincial states, the national parliament and the European Parliament. All adults of at least 18 years old can vote in these elections. This is what we call democracy, and it started in Greece.
source 2.2.1
Present-day Dutch election posters.
Slide 7 - Slide
Greek politics
Democracy started in ancient Athens.
In lesson 2.1 you learned that a polis was the city and its surrounding farmland. So a polis really was a small country, and each polis had its own government.
The Greeks had different systems to govern a polis. They would name those systems by describing who had the power. So if the people had the power, or in Greek terms if the demos had the kration, it would be called a demokration or in English a democracy. If the elite, a small group of rich citizens ruled, it would be an aristocracy (aristos = the best).
source 2.2.1
Greek politics was only for men. Women were not allowed to take part of elections or assemblies.
Modern illustration
source 2.2.2
The pillars of democracy. Four conditions for a good functionaing modern democracy. Modern illustration.
As you can see the words democracy and aristocracy both end with
–cracy (a suffix) . That means something is added at the end of a word to make a new word. Some words for government do not have the suffix –cracy, but –archy. For example monarchy (mono= one, archo= to rule).
In lesson 2.1 you learned that a polis was the city and its surrounding farmland. So a polis really was a small country, and each polis had its own government.
The Greeks had different systems to govern a polis. They would name those systems by describing who had the power. So if the people had the power, or in Greek terms if the demos had the kration, it would be called a demokration or in English a democracy. If the elite, a small group of rich citizens ruled, it would be an aristocracy (aristos = the best).
Slide 8 - Slide
Athens was democratic
Athens was ruled as a democracy. This means that all citizens could be involved in the government.
Citizenship is a set of rights and obligations between a country and its people.
In Athens they believed that you could only be involved in politics (a right) if you were able to serve in the army (obligation).
But not everybody could do this, because women and slaves could not be citizens.
A foreigner (metoik) was already a citizen in his own polis. So although all citizens could be involved in politics, not all people in Athens were citizens.
source 2.2.4
Pericles speaks to the Athenian people. Painting by Philipp Foltz (1852)
Slide 9 - Slide
Assemblies
Every polis had a general assembly, where all citizens gathered. This general assembly was called the ecclesia.
In Athens, the ecclesia was the highest power.
At least 6,000 citizens were required to make a decision or it would not count. The idea of general assemblies is that everybody who is affected by the decision should be involved in it.
Everyday governing was done by a smaller council of 500 citizens, called the boule. These 500 people were chosen from all citizens who wanted to be in the boule.
source 2.2.6
A bouleuterion was a building in ancient Greece which housed the council of citizens (boulē) of a democratic city state. These representatives assembled at the bouleuterion to confer and decide about public affairs.
The word "general" has 2 different meanings that are often used in history lessons:
1. for everyone, or widespread.
For example: "books of general interest"
2. a commander of an army, or an army officer of very high rank.
For example: "George Patton was a general in the US army during World War 2".
source 2.2.5
A scheme of ancient Athenian democracy.
Slide 10 - Slide
Slide 11 - Video
Elections in Athens
Like in our modern democracy today, the Athenians had elections, for example: They thought jobs that required a special skill were different from political jobs. So ship captains and generals (called strategoi) would be elected.
A lot like TV shows
Voting system calles ostracism
Broken pottery > ostrakon
Banned from Athens
When people do a bad job
source 2.2.7
A bust of the famous Athenian general Pericles (Roman copy after a Greek original from the 5th century BC).
source 2.2.8
An ostrakon with Pericles’ name on it (5th century BC).