2.2 Ancient Democracy -T-

• History
• Middelbare school
• havo, vwo
• Leerjaar 1

AGE 2. The Time of Greeks and Romans

2.2 Ancient Democracy

THEORY

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.

Important dates in this lesson:

508 BC: start of democracy in Athens

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. 

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

right: something that you are entitled to 

obligation: something that you must do because you made a commitment to do it

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 (= a monarch).

KEY WORDS

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.

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).

Athens was democratic

Democracy started in ancient Athens around 508 BC.

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. You can compare this to if your parents give you pocket money, or an allowance, if you clear the table and keep your room tidy. So you get money (a right) if you carry out your obligation (clean your room). If you do not tidy up your room, you get no money. It was the same with citizenship. 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)

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. However it did not gather often, only for very important matters. 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. They had this everyday governing process because it was not possible to gather everyone together for making less-important decisions.

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.

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.

Another election they had was a lot like the reality shows you see on TV nowadays. You may have seen shows where they vote one person off the show each episode. The Athenians had this too. They wrote the name of the person on a bit of broken pottery. This shard is called an ostrakon (plural ostraka). The person who got the most votes from these pot shards was banned from Athens for a few years. This is called ostracism, after the Greek name for the pot fragments. If people thought that a politician did a bad job, they could also go to the court and sue him. A jury of citizens listened to the case and then to the defense. After that they would decide on punishment.

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).

Pericles info

congratulations: FINISHED

But you can check out the next videos for extra information about this subject.

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