Government in Athens
Key Terms
*democracy
*aristocrats
*oligarchy
*citizens
*tyrant
*Pericles
Under Draco,
an aristocrat,
loitering was
punishable by
death!
Talk to your neighbor about the geography of Greece.
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.
A government in which only a few people have power is called an oligarchy.
Today, laws that are seen as “too strict” are called “Draconian” after Draco.
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.
Discuss with
your neighbor
what an
oligarchy is.
A tyranny is
a government
in which a
tyrant has
power.
The Rise of Tyrants
Today, the word tyrant
usually describes a
negative, harsh ruler.
• Eventually, the
oligarchy was
overthrown by a tyrant,
Peisistratus (py-SIStruht-uhs).
• A tyrant is a person
who held power
through force.
• In ancient Greece,
tyrants were good
leaders, unifying the
city and improving
Athens.
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-thuhneez) took power.
Cleisthenes was a
member of a rich family
set to take power.
However, he had different
plans for Athens.
Under Cleisthenes’
rule, the first
democracy was
created.
Cleisthenes called upon his people to help overthrow the oligarchy once and for all.
Women, slaves,
and foreigners
weren’t considered
citizens so they
couldn’t vote.
Democracy Under
Cleisthenes
• All citizens had the
right and were
Athenians would assemble urged to assemble
to participate in
the making of
laws.
• Citizens gave
speeches and
Athenians would debate
debates on issues.
• After speeches
were over, voting
took place.
Athenians would vote
Democracy Under
Cleisthenes 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.
Debates on Pnyx
were often noisy
and lacked
organization.
Voting took place on Pnyx (pah-NIKS), a small hill that sometimes held 6,000 people.
Pericles
encouraged
other parts
of Greece
to be
democratic.
Pericles even
paid citizens
to serve the
government.
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.
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 could
make decisions
without the king’s
approval.
Democracy
Talk to your neighbor about why you think the assembly was
afraid to speak up against the new king.
Direct Democracy vs.
Representative Democracy
Direct Democracy
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•
•
•
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
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.
U.S.