Democracy

Ancient Greece

• 700- 146 B.C.
• Independent city-states: polis
• Democracy = rule by the people
• - Popular sovereignty, equality and consent 
• - Ruled by free male citizens.

Classical golden era

• Pericles (500 B.C.)
• Unified greeks against Persians
• Peloponnesian War (Athenian empire vs. Sparta)
• Phillip II and Alexander the Great (334 B.C.)
• -Empire followed by 4 Hellenistic kingdoms

Rome (509 BC- 476 AD)

• 509-264 B.C., city expanded and united Italy
• Military and diplomacy
•  -  Local authonomy, cultural tolerance, grant citizenship.
• Republic, ruled by oligarchy
• Mediterranean power (133 B.C.)

Roman empire

• Republic was inadequate for the amount of territory
• Pompey, Crassus, and Julius Caesar = civil wars
• Octavian was victorious = Augustus Caesar. 
•   - First Roman emperor. Senate conitnued with less power.
• German and Persian invasions, Christianity

Middle ages (476 -1453)

• Collapse of Roman Empire.
• Charlemagne (800 DC)
• - German tribes, Roman legacy, Christian church
• Feudalism = new political institution
• Development of urban industrial society

high middle ages (1000-1450)

• Landed aristocracy
• Kings started centralizing power.
• - Monarchical states
• Power of the Catholic Church

renaissance (1300-1600)

• Italy: new urban culture and trade
• Venice, Milan, Florence, Papal States and Naples
• Development of the bourgeoisie. 
• Humanism and classical revival.
• Machiavelli "The Prince" = ends justify the means 

Absolutism (1450-1750)

• Crises of the XVII century
• Absolute monarchy = divine right
• - make laws, administer justice, determine foreign policy
• France: Louis XIV and his court.
• Autrian Empire, Prussia (German states) and Russia (czar)

enlightment (1800)

• Scientific Revolution & philosophes
• Montesquieu: separation of powers.
• Rousseau: "The Social Contract"
• - Society agrees to be governed by its general will
• Enlightened absolutism