Students, after reading this speech by Perikles, what do you know about democracy in Athens? Please discuss in groups of four and sum up the characteristics of democracy.
Perikles's speech gave an incisive and accurate explanation of the basic characteristics of Athenian democracy: people's sovereignty, equality before the law, taking turns to govern, taking politics as the foundation, and supremacy of the city-state.
People's sovereignty: all rights of the state belong to all citizens, who are rulers and participate in political collectives to master the supreme power of the state. In other words, political power is not in the hands of a few people, but in the hands of many people, that is, the state management of Athens is in the hands of all citizens.
Rule by turns: it means rule by turns and be ruled by turns. The basic principle is the principle of equality. Every citizen can be a ruler or a ruled.
So how did the political system of Athens in the period of Perikles embody these two characteristics, and how did the democratic politics of this period work?
1. Function: Let's look at the first institutional citizens' meeting. The citizens' assembly is the highest authority in Athens, and all male citizens over the age of 20 can participate. Congress is held 40 times a year to hear important reports from all officials, debate and pass various proposals, elect state officials to make laws and decide on major national policies such as war and peace. Responsible for deliberating and deciding all state affairs, even personal affairs. One of the most important duties is to pass various laws. Therefore, the citizens' assembly is both the highest authority and the highest legislative body.
Citizens' congresses are held 40 times a year, among which 10 "main meetings" have a fixed topic: reviewing the performance of serving public officials and voting on their future. This means that a public official has to go through 10 mass qualification examinations during his one-year term, which is definitely the rarest public official assessment system in the world, so some ruling officials step down in the shortest month. The other 30 times were used to deal with state affairs.
2. Participants: The participants in the citizens' assembly are power citizens, and all legal citizens have the right to participate, know, speak and be elected. Perikles also pointed out that "anyone who can contribute to the country will never be forgotten politically because of poverty." How did he realize this idea? In order to encourage citizens to participate in politics, the conference subsidized the participants, initially for half a day's meal, and later increased it to one and a half days' meal. By paying salaries and allowances to citizens who hold public office and participate in the political activities of the city-state, low-income civilians can participate in political affairs conditionally.
Main procedure: debate a motion and formulate a set of rules for debate to ensure its efficiency and order. During the reign of Perikles, strict regulations were made on the qualifications of people who spoke at the citizens' assembly. Anyone who hits his parents,
wk _ ad _ begin({ PID:2 1 })； wk_ad_after(2 1，function(){$('。 ad-hidden)。 hide()； }，function(){$('。 ad-hidden)。 show()； });
Those who do not support their parents, those who do not perform military service as instructed and flee from the battlefield, and those who squander the property acquired through inheritance are not qualified to speak at the citizens' meeting. This fully shows that citizens in Athens must have certain moral conditions to enjoy democracy, and the enjoyment of the democratic regime in Athens is not only determined by property.
Moreover, there were detailed rules for speaking at that time, and these rules are still worth remembering and abiding by today. For example, a speaker cannot ask two questions or discuss two unrelated things at the same time; You can't say the same question twice; The position and viewpoint should be clear, and the speech should not be ambiguous; Do not slander, insult others, and do not swear; Don't interrupt others; Do not attack the chairman of the meeting; Must speak on stage. If you violate these rules, you will be severely punished.
When neither side of the debate has anything new, the motion is put to the vote. The voting method is a show of hands, and special votes are adopted for major bills that need to be clearly counted. After the general assembly announced the voting results, Athenian citizens completed a mission of managing the country. Under the 500-member State Council, there are 27 administrative, military and economic institutions that specialize in managing state affairs, and their functions are similar to those of today's the State Council and state ministries and commissions.
The 500-member committee is a subsidiary body of the General Assembly. The committee consists of 500 people. In order to better exercise their power, these 500 people were divided into 10 Presidiums and took turns to govern. The 500-member assembly consists of 50 people from the 10 tribe. Members of the 500-member conference are citizens regardless of rank. The power of the 500-member meeting has also been expanded. In addition to preparing bills for the assembly, all topics are discussed and presided over by the assembly, which is also responsible for handling the daily affairs of the country when the assembly is not in session. Its 500 members are divided into 10 groups according to the tribe, which are called "Presidium" in turn within one year, and each group also takes 50 people on duty in turn. On the day when everyone was on duty, he was the highest-ranking public official in Athens.
First of all, the administrative function of the 500-member Council is to propose and preside over the general assembly when it is in session; Second, the 500-member committee has judicial and supervisory functions. When the parliament is not in session, the Council composed of 500 people is responsible for supervising the administrative officials, implementing the resolutions of the parliament, representing the country, in fact, the Athens government, and handling some daily affairs.
People's Court: The people's court is the daily judicial organ of Athens city-state. Judges are all ordinary citizens of Athens, with a total of 6000 people. They are elected once a year, and every citizen takes turns to participate in the people's court. Except for murder and a few major special cases, all other criminal cases are decided by the people's court. Therefore, the people's court has quite independent judicial functions and is the highest judicial organ of the country. In addition, the people's court has the power of final adjudication on the qualifications of senior public officials, and has the right to deny whether the resolutions and bills of the 500-member parliament or citizens' assembly violate the law. This is undoubtedly a check and balance between the legislative power and the executive power. Maximize fairness and avoid bribery and fraud.
The most powerful people in Athens are the elected ten "generals", who can not only command the army, but also participate in politics; Chief general
The army is in charge of military and political power; 10 general committee, chaired by the military consul. Generals are always elected without drawing lots, and can be re-elected, but they can also be removed at any time. It's the General Committee. Although they are senior administrative officials,
(Teaching Transition): We have learned all aspects of democracy in Athens in detail. Let's do a few exercises to review what we have learned, consolidate what we have just learned, gain new inspiration and think more.
(Consolidation training 1): It is striking-what rights do the following pictures reflect respectively under a democratic regime? Which of these powers were created by Athenian democracy?
Figure A: During the American election, American citizens actively voted. (Answer: the right to vote) Figure B: At the National People's Congress, delegates raised their hands to vote on state affairs. (Answer: Decision-making Power) Figure C: Members of the US Congress listen to government reports. (Answer: the right to know) Figure D: Members of the British Parliament debate state affairs. (answer: the right to speak)
A day in Papadi, Athens
Papadi is a farmer in the suburb of Athens. This year (399 years ago), he was 30. He is the head of the family. Today, he will go to Athens to attend a civic meeting. Although this citizens' meeting is held every 10 day, which seriously affects Papadi's agricultural work, he is still willing to go.
Question 1: Why does he want to go?
(Hint: Because the democratic political life in Athens is guaranteed by the subsidy system)
Papadi's wife Helen also wanted to go to the civic meeting with her husband, but Papadi said no, but I really couldn't beat my wife, so they went together. Arriving at the venue of the Athens Citizens' Congress, it has not officially started. The venue is as lively as usual, surrounded by fences and equipped with ten doors. The inspector on duty at the door saw Mr. and Mrs. Papadi and shouted at Papadi loudly, "Hello! Your wife can't come here. "
Question 2: Why can't Papadi's wife enter the meeting?
(Hint: Women, children, foreigners and slaves are not citizens of Athens and have no right to participate in the assembly.)
Helen left the meeting discontentedly. After Papadi went in alone, she heard the consul announce that there were two topics in today's discussion: the first was to vote for democratic obstructionists. Every eligible Athenian citizen will receive a piece of pottery at the entrance of his constituency, one for each person, write down his name and give it to the staff. Papadi couldn't read, so he had to ask a decent nobleman nearby to write it. He didn't know who it was. This time, the one who got the most votes was a nobleman, Coulson. When his name was announced, the whole venue rushed to condemn his anti-state behavior: "He thought he had contributed to the war against Persians, so he was proud of himself. Now he never cares about state affairs, but always cares about his own personal interests.
Question 3: What does this agenda belong to in Athenian democracy? Who founded this system? How to evaluate?
(hint: pottery exile method. Expelled the enemies who opposed democratic politics and ensured the smooth progress of democratic politics. But it is easy to be used by people and become a tool for people to fight for power and profit.
The second topic is to debate and vote on whether to further expand the size of the navy. The host first announced the qualifications of the speaker. The prepared nobles immediately divided into two factions and attacked each other. At this time, Qi Sangla, a distant relative of Papadi, jumped on the platform and was about to speak when he heard the following voice: "What right does this unfilial son who beat his parents have to speak here?" So it was Papadi who turned him in. Amid abuse, Sang withdrew from the stage. Question 4: Why was Sangla ousted?
(Hint: According to the debate rules of the Athens Citizens' Assembly, Sangla is not qualified to speak. )
Let the students know that the rise and fall of Greek city-state system is related to slavery. Citizens have the privilege of not being slaves. Slaves can only be obtained from foreign countries Q: What consequences will this lead to? Some citizens are eager to enjoy, lazy and follow political self-interest. Therefore, with the continuous development of politics, economy and culture, the city-state system of small countries and few people has to go to extinction. The wars among Greek states and the chaos within the city-states led to the decline of the ancient Greek city-state system. Due to the struggle between its cities, it was conquered by Philip II of Macedonia in 338 BC, and Greek civilization declined from then on.
After the Tyrol League evolved into the Athenian Empire, Athens became the largest power in Greece, causing hostility between Sparta and its Peloponnesian League. It reflects the crisis of Greek city-state system: it can neither prevent the outbreak of war nor lead to a stable alliance after the war, so wars are frequent, which shows that the city-state system has been difficult to adapt to the requirements of the further development of Greek slavery. The war ended in the failure of Athens, which made the classical civilization in the rising stage suffer setbacks. A peace treaty was signed in 404. Although this war was a civil war between Greeks, it was even more tragic than the Greek-Persian war. Since then, Greek history has entered the stage of polis crisis, and Greek classical civilization has also declined from its heyday.
The hegemony between the city-states is caused by the development of slavery, which will inevitably lead to a scuffle between the major powers for hegemony, and finally bring Greece into the track of establishing a kingdom and imperial rule required by the development of slavery.
After the Peloponnesian War, Sparta became the overlord of Greece, which triggered new contradictions. It can be seen that the vitality of the city-state system has been exhausted, but the city-state crisis has facilitated the rise of Macedonia and its control over Greece.
History after Hellenistic Period (5)
The Hellenistic period began with the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and ended in 146 BC. The Greek mainland and islands were incorporated into the territory of Rome. Although Roman rule over Greece did not change the cultural and social traditions formed during the Hellenistic period, it still marked the loss of Greek political independence. During the Hellenistic period, the influence of "Greek mainland" in the Greek-speaking world was greatly reduced. The cultural centers at that time were Alexandria, the capital of Ptolemy Dynasty, and Antioch, the capital of Seleucid Empire.
The basic characteristics of Athenian democracy are people's sovereignty and rule by turns. In the heyday of democracy in Athens, almost all state institutions were open to all citizens, and the citizens' assembly, the highest authority, was composed of all citizens and decided Athens' major policies and many specific things. The committee consists of 500 people. In order to exercise power, it is divided into 10 Presidiums, which are on duty in turn, but each Presidium still has as many as 50 people. The people's court is the main judicial organ in Athens, and the judges are ordinary citizens of Athens, with a total of 6,000 people. Even when trying smaller cases, the number of judges often exceeds 100, and a case can reach 1000 or even 6000 * *. Other power organs in Athens are also presided over by many citizens, whose intention is obviously to let as many citizens as possible participate in the political life of the country, fully mobilize the enthusiasm of citizens, and make the decision-making laws more in line with the will of most citizens. All these reflect the characteristics of people's sovereignty. The characteristic of rotation rule is that most of the official positions in Athens, including the highest consul and the lowest minor officials, were elected by lot. In order to prevent some rich and powerful people from manipulating elections and occupying some important positions for a long time, the Athenians designed a seemingly absurd but actually very effective method. Most of the official positions in Athens, including the highest consul and the lowest official, are ... The Athenians believe that those citizens with deep pockets and prominent reputations are on the same starting line as those who are penniless and unknown, and everything depends on providence and luck.
Secondly, most of the official positions in Athens are short-lived, usually once a year, and cannot be re-elected. To borrow a word from Aristotle, because all citizens have equal status, they cannot be rulers at the same time, so at the same time, some people are ruled and others are ruled. When the ruler leaves office, he becomes the ruled, forming a situation of taking turns to govern.