Government in AthensKey Terms

*democracy*aristocrats*oligarchy*citizens*tyrant

*Pericles

Aristocrats Rule

• Originally, kings ruled city-states.

• Later, a group of aristocrats, or rich landowners, took power.

• Under the aristocrats, laws were too strict and other Athenians disliked them.

Under Draco,an aristocrat,loitering was

punishable by death!

A government in which only a few people have power is called an oligarchy.

Talk to your neighbor about the geography of Greece.

Aristocrats Rule Cont.• With such strict laws,

Solon (SOH-luhn) tried to fix them by making everyone a citizen, or someone who had the right to participate in government.

• However, Athenians were still ready to end the oligarchy.

Today, laws that are seen as “too strict” are called “Draconian” after Draco.

Discuss withyour neighbor

what an oligarchy is.

The Rise of Tyrants

• Eventually, the oligarchy was overthrown by a tyrant, Peisistratus (py-SIS-truht-uhs).

• A tyrant is a person who held power through force.

• In ancient Greece, tyrants were good leaders, unifying the city and improving Athens.

Today, the word tyrant usually describes a

negative, harsh ruler.

A tyranny isa government

in which a tyrant has

power.

Talk to your neighbor about what it might be like to live under a tyrant.

Athens Creates Democracy

• Unfortunately, aristocrats came into power again after Peisistratus died.

• It remained this way until Cleisthenes (KLYS-thuh-neez) took power.

• Cleisthenes was a member of a rich family set to take power.

• However, he had different plans for Athens.

Cleisthenes called upon his people to help overthrow the oligarchy once and for all.

Under Cleisthenes’rule, the first

democracy was created.

Democracy UnderCleisthenes

• All citizens had the right and were urged to assemble to participate in the making of laws.

• Citizens gave speeches and debates on issues.

• After speeches were over, voting took place.

Women, slaves,and foreigners

weren’t consideredcitizens so they couldn’t vote.

Athenians would assemble

Athenians would debate

Athenians would vote

Democracy UnderCleisthenes Cont.

• Voting was usually done by show of hands.

• For major decisions, 6,000 citizens were needed to vote.

• As you can imagine, it was difficult at times to find 6,000 people to come vote.

• To make it easier, citizens were selected to serve on a smaller council which decided on laws to discuss.

Voting took place on Pnyx (pah-NIKS), a small hill that sometimes held 6,000 people.

Debates on Pnyxwere often noisy

and lackedorganization.

Changes in Athenian Democracy

• Citizens began to gain power by serving on juries to decide court cases.

• Democracy flourished when Pericles was in power.

• Pericles felt that participating in the government was as important as defending Athens in war. Pericles even

paid citizensto serve thegovernment.

Periclesencouragedother partsof Greece

to bedemocratic.

Democracy Ends in Athens

• Athens was conquered by Macedonia to the north.

• The Macedonian king ruled like a dictator, or a ruler who rules all.

• The assembly still met, but didn’t do anything to upset the king, making it so citizens had very little say again.

• Eventually, Athenian democracy was lost forever.

Nobody couldmake decisions

without the king’sapproval.

Democracy

Talk to your neighbor about why you think the assembly wasafraid to speak up against the new king.

Direct Democracy vs. Representative Democracy

Representative Democracy• The United States is a

representative democracy.

• Citizens elect officials to represent them.

• Elected officials meet to make laws and enforce them.

• For example, the United States have senators and congressmen to represent and vote for us.

Direct Democracy• Ancient Greece was a direct

democracy.

• All citizens represented themselves directly and could participate in government and voting.

• Citizens themselves would gather and discuss issues.

• The population of ancient Greece was large, but still small enough to have a government in place that allowed all citizens to debate and vote.

GREECE U.S.