Republic vs.

Democracy Grade Level- 7th Time: 50 min GLCE

H1.4.1 Describe and use cultural institutions to study an era and a region (political, economic, religion/ belief, science/technology, written language, education, family). 7 W3.1.4 Assess the importance of Greek ideas about democracy and citizenship in the development of Western political thought and institutions.

Materials: Toga (bed sheet) Worksheet Article Puzzles

Objectives: Students will begin to meet the GLCE W.3.1.4 by acting out a Democracy and a Republic. They will show comprehension by summarizing and listing the differences in each type of government. They will also apply what is learned by explaining how this would affect the people in a civilization Introduction: To get the students interested in what I am doing I will be wearing a toga. I will explain that in the Greek and Roman Empires a toga would symbolize a person who was a citizen or voter in the civilization. I am going to give the students a task. They will work in what I will call a community (group) of 3-4. I will explain to them that they are all citizens of Greece and have the right to vote. Each community will have a puzzle. Their task will be to finish the puzzle as quickly as possible. I will also explain that this puzzle will symbolize their day-to-day jobs. As motivation I will have a reward for the group that finishes first. Procedure: I will give the students 8-15 minutes depending on how much time is left after my explanation. They will begin working as hard and as fast as they can (a little noise is a good thing here). After about two minutes I will get all their attention and they will not be allowed to work. I will

explain that we have to take a vote to build a road. The road will make getting to town easier, but it will cut through a farmers field and he will lose crops. They must all stop what they are doing to come and vote on whether or not to build the road. After voting, they may resume their work. After everyone has voted I will wait a few moments and yet again have the students come up and vote. This time I will explain that one of our ships was just destroyed by the Spartans and that we need to vote on if we want to go to war. War means a lot of people die; no war means that we look weak. Again, everyone comes and votes. I will do this a third time saying that one of the government buildings has collapsed and we need to vote on whether to rebuild it or not. Building it means our government can operate smoothly but it will require an increase in taxes. After everyone has voted for a final time I will call a halt to the puzzle making and I will ask if anyone was able to complete it. Knowing that I interrupted them far too much, I will have them all take a seat. I will explain that we just acted out a democracy. In a true democracy every citizen gets a vote. I will have them think of the following questions: Is this system fair? Is it very efficient? What changes could we make to make this more efficient? I will now explain that we are going to make the same puzzles but this time we are going to act out a republic. In a republic you elect someone in your community to represent you and your wishes. Now when we have an issue the elected people is the only ones that will leave the group and come to vote. I will restart the timer and repeat the above sequence of events. Closure: I will bring the students back to their seats after the completion of the above activity. I will assign them the worksheet and the article which references both a democracy and a republic. Assessment: I will collect the worksheet the following day to see if my students met my objective. I will also have a warm up question for the next days class: In your own words explain the difference between a republic and a democracy. We will then talk about the differences and I will answer any further questions they may have. Adaptations: Some of my students struggle with reading; the activity will give them a base for the homework so they can comprehend the material easier.

Around 510 BCE - The Ancient Athenians Invented

Democracy

Over 2400 years ago, the famous Greek general, Pericles, said, "It is true that we (Athenians) are called a democracy, for the administration is in the hands of the many and not the few, with equal justice to all alike in their private disputes." Only in Athens, and only for a short time, "rule by many" meant that all citizens had to be willing to take an active part in government. That was the law. Each year, 500 names were drawn from all the citizens of Athens. Those 500 citizens had to serve for one year as the law makers of ancient Athens. All citizens of Athens were required to vote on any new law that this body of 500 citizens created. One man, one vote, majority ruled. Women, children, and slaves were not citizens, and thus could not vote.

After the Peloponnesian War with Sparta, which Athens lost, once again Athens was ruled by a small group of people. But for a brief period of about 100 years, Athens was a democracy. It was not a perfect democracy, but it established the roots of democracy. We owe Athens a lot! A Direct Democracy: A government in which people vote to make their own rules and laws A Representative Democracy: A government in which people vote for representatives. The representatives make rules and laws that govern themselves and the people.

In your own words

What is a democracy?

Do you believe this is a fair way to make rules and laws?

Is the United States a true democracy? Explain.

Republic
In a republic, instead of voting directly about what people want to do (as in a democracy), citizens instead vote for people to represent them, and those people decide what to do. The first republic was the Roman Republic, which was founded about 509 BCE, just about the same time as the first democracy in Athens. The rules about who could vote were about the same as in Athens too: slaves couldn't vote, and neither could women, or children, or men who were not citizens. In addition, in Rome you could only vote if you owned land, so a lot of poor men could not vote at all, even though they were free citizens. The republic was a lot more efficient than the democracy, because most men who could vote only needed to vote in the big elections, and the rest of the time they could be at work. Only the senators and the elected representatives had to be voting all the time.

In your own words

What is a republic?

Do you believe this is a fair way to make rules and laws?

Is the United States a true republic? Explain.