1) in Your City-State Groups, Examine Each Style of Government That Was Used in Ancient Greece

1) in Your City-State Groups, Examine Each Style of Government That Was Used in Ancient Greece

INSTRUCTIONS:

1) In your city-state groups, examine each style of government that was used in Ancient Greece

2) Fill in the ‘Government Styles’ chart with the benefit and weakness for each style of government based on its use in Ancient Greece.

3) Individually, rank all of the styles of government in the order of their effectiveness in Ancient Greece.

4) Discuss the following question as a group and come to a conclusion:

  • Which government system was most effective? Why?

CASE STUDY #1: DEMOCRACY

In this form of government there are various elements that become apart of how the society is governed

1) ASSEMBLY: once a month, male citizens would attend meetings of the Assembly on a hill called the Pnyx. There had to be 6000 men at a meeting of the before they could decide anything.

2) COUNCIL OF 500: This city-state also chose five hundred men every year through a lottery to meet more often and decide things that weren't as important. The Boule suggested new laws to the Assembly, made sure the laws were being enforced, and took care of things like street repair, fixing public buildings and temples, and building ships for the city-states navy.

3) ARCONS: nine elected officials called archons. Arcons mostly took care of religious things like organizing public sacrifices.

4) STRATEGOI: There were also ten strategoi (generals), who were elected by the Assembly. At first they just commanded the city-states army and navy, but later these officials were running the government like Pericles, Themisotocles and Alcibiades

5) JUSTICE SYSTEM: made up of judges and the courts. Men (women couldn't serve) volunteered to be on juries. They needed six thousand volunteers every year. Then for each day, they picked about five hundred men to be on that day's jury and hear cases. The jury decided cases by a simple majority - whichever side got more votes won. You could not appeal. If the jury convicted you, then they would hold another vote to decide on a sentence, as in the trial of Socrates. These juries not only decided criminal and property cases, but also decided whether laws passed by the Assembly were legal or not.

6) OSTRACISM: reverse election to decide which leading politician should be exiled for 10 years; at least 6000 citizens had to vote for ostracisms to be valid. The function of ostracism was to abort serious civil unrest or civil war. Eventually by the end of the 5th century it was replaced by a jury system.

CASE STUDY #2: OLIGARCHY

  • The state is governed by a well balanced combination of two kings, five ephors, a council of the elder and an assembly of all
  • Each king/ crown is hereditary
  • Armies are nearly always led into battle by one of the kings
  • Kings, even when in agreement, do not yield absolute power
  • Politically the leadership of the city-state is attractive to the aristocratic families who continue to control many city-states in Greece
  • The chief threat to their interests comes from tyrants, seizing power on behalf of a newly enriched class
  • This particular city-state was ruled by an aristocracy within a constitutional framework, usually secure against any upheaval
  • There is no risk of a commercial class developing, for there is no commerce (coins are even banned)
  • Therefore, this city-state becomes associated with a policy of opposing tyrants – even overthrowing them

CASE STUDY #3: TYRANNY

  • The earliest tyrants were in this city-state. Soon other aristocrats in other Greek cities (and in West Asia) copied this idea
  • By 550 BCE many cities were still ruled by aristocrats, especially the ones where Dorians lived, but tyrants, especially the ones where Ionians lived, like Athens, ruled many others.
  • Other aristocrats hated the tyrants, but a lot of poor people loved them.
  • Most of the tyrants did a good job
  • They protected the poor people from the rich aristocrats; they built a lot of new buildings, and they helped people to trade with West Asia and the other nearby places

CASE STUDY #4: ARTISTOCRACY

  • Not much is known about early history of this particular city-state
  • The central position and military security of the city naturally tended to raise it to a commanding position among the Boeotians (people who belong to this specific region in ancient Greece), and from early days its inhabitants wanted to establish a complete supremacy over their kinsmen in the outlying towns.
  • This centralizing policy is as much the cardinal fact of the city-states history as the counteracting effort of the smaller towns to resist absorption forms the main chapter of the story of Boeotia.
  • No details of the earlier history of this city-state have been preserved, except that it was governed by a land-holding aristocracy who safeguarded their integrity by rigid statutes about the ownership of property and its transmission.
  • Archeologists have only encountered property documents that are linked to the people of this particular city-state because of the destruction by Alexander in 355 BC

CASE #5: MONARCHY

  • Originally, the form of government in this city-state was a monarchy of the heroic order
  • The supreme power being heredity in the family of Temenidae
  • Aspirations of political liberty arose among the people of this city-state
  • Kingly power was diminished
  • A form of government that continued to be in part monarchial but very republic, was established