World History Ancient Athens and Government Terms

Government

A system for controlling a society

Monarchy

a single person ruled government (king or monarch)

Aristocracy

a government ruled by a small group of privileged elites or nobility

Oligarchy

A government ruled by a few powerful people

Democracy

a government ruled by the people through voting for representatives

Direct Democracy

a government where citizens rule and make laws directly (directly voting for laws)

Solon

passed a law that outlawed debt slavery (being a slave to work to repay debt) and allowed citizens into assembly.

Cleisthenes

generally regarded as the founder of democracy in Athens

Pericles

increased the number of paid public officers and payed jurors

Socrates

used a question-and-answer approach that became known as socratic method

Plato

he wanted a society governed not by the richest and most powerful but instead by the wisest and most qualified

How does their democracy differ from the democracy that we practice today?

Their democracy was a direct democracy meaning the citizens would directly vote for laws, where as our democracy we elect representitives to vote for laws on our behalf.

How did ancient Athens develop a democracy?

by moving the power from rich noble famlies to the citizens by creating an assembly of elected officals.