American Government/Athens and

Rome

The Congress Made up of two houses:

Senate

House of Representatives

The Congress works together to make laws

House of Representative Elected by the people

435 representatives

States are given number of representatives according to how large the state’s population is.

California has 53 representatives

Alaska 1 representative

Two year terms

Senate The upper house of the

Congress

100 Senators

2 Senators for each state elected by the people

6 year terms

President The President is elected

by the people

The President can veto (forbid) laws made by congress

The President controls the military

The President and his advisor run the country on a day-to day basis

The government of ancient Athens

The world’s first true democracy

Every male citizen was allowed to participate in decision making

Mass meetings were held every ten days

All decisions were made by voting at these meetings

Running Ancient Athens Ten elected officials ran

the city on a daily basis. They were elected for one year

Any male citizen could be elected as an official

OstracismThis was a system designed to prevent an

official from becoming too powerful

Citizens could vote on officials they thought should be kicked out of the city

It took 6,000 votes to be ostracized

Roman RepublicEarly Rome had been ruled by a group called the

Etruscans who had kings

When Rome became independent they mistrusted kings and wanted a different form of government

Rome formed the world’s first Republic

Roman Senate Rome was divided into

social classes (Rich, poor, etc.)

The Senate was made up of 300 people from the upper class who served for life

Senators were chosen not elected

The senate was able to make laws

Centuriate AssemblyThe assembly was made up of elected citizens

It was structured so richer people always had more seats in the assembly

The assembly had the power to elect the Roman Consuls

ConsulsTwo Consuls

Elected each year by the centuriate assembly

Ran the city and acted as generals

Dictators In emergencies situations

the government would elect a dictator

The dictator controlled everything in the government until the emergency was over