Government
-What type of government?
Athens created the first democracy. They were a direct democracy which meant the people vote to make their own rules and laws.
-Always this type of government? If not how it change?
No, by the 5th century, they changed governments from Tyranny to Democracy. The definition of tyranny is “autocratic rulers who governed by decree.”
-Who was allowed to participate?
Men were considered citizens but women, slaves, and foreigners were not. Children that had lived in Athens their whole lives, but their parents weren’t citizens, weren’t citizens themselves.
-The branch and bodies of government
The Assembly (ekklesia)- Any man was allowed to attend. They were held 40 times a year on a hillside auditorium. They made decision about war and they wrote and revised laws. Majority rules.
The Council (boule)- they supervised government workers and was incharge of navy ships and army horses.
The Courts (dikasteria)- They had most of the power. 500 jurors were chosen everyday to serve and they had to be males over 30 years old. There were no rules on what kinds of cases could be tried in court. Majority rules.
-Did the people like it?
The poor people liked it but the rich didn’t and the rich people are the ones that matter. They viewed society like a modern stock company. Democracy is like a company where all shareholders have equal say regardless of the scale of their holding; one share or ten thousand, it makes no difference.
-Key players. What did they do?
Cleithenes was called ‘father of democracy’.
Solon introduced many new government reforms.
Perciles was the leader for thirty years.
-Were there critics? If so what did they say?
Athenian democracy had many critics, both ancient and modern. Instead of seeing it as a fair system under which 'everyone' has equal rights, they saw it as the poor tyrannizing over the rich.
-Elections
They didn’t really have elections for the Council. 500 names were drawn from all the people of Athens, 50 from each of the 10 Athenian tribes, and they had to serve as the lawmakers for one year and then 500 more were drawn.
http://library.thinkquest.org/6132/government.html
http://www.chacha.com/question/what-where-the-branches-of-the-athenian-government
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athenian_democracy#Criticism_of_the_democracy
http://greece.mrdonn.org/athensdemocracy.html
http://www.history.com/topics/ancient-greece-democracy
Students Questions:
What are the three branches of government called, and what did each of them do?
Who was known as the ‘father of democracy’?
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