Ancient Greece and Rome
Founding Documents
Enlightenment Thinkers
Democratic Principles
Rights and Revolution
100
In ancient Athens, all adult male citizens could vote in the Assembly — a practice that illustrated this principle of government.
What is democracy?
100
This 1620 agreement signed by Pilgrims aboard the Mayflower established early self-government in the colonies.
What is the Mayflower Compact?
100
According to John Locke, this is the agreement individuals enter into when forming a society.
What is the social contract?
100
This idea holds that governments are given their power by the people.
What is consent of the governed?
100
This 1776 pamphlet used blunt, plainspoken language to convince ordinary colonists it was time to break from Great Britain.
What is Common Sense?
200
In the U.S., Congress writes and passes laws; this governing body of ancient Athens served a similar function.
What is the Assembly?
200
Beyond naming a document, the impact of the Mayflower Compact was establishing this core idea about how government gets its authority.
What is self-government / consent of the governed?
200
This Enlightenment thinker's ideas about separation of powers were central to the U.S. Constitution.
Who is Baron de Montesquieu?
200
On a chart of democratic principles, this sentence — "citizens elect their own representatives" — completes the entry for this concept.
What is representative government?
200
Paine didn't just call for independence — he also attacked this entire form of government headed by a single hereditary ruler, calling it unnatural and absurd.
What is monarchy?
300
The chart below shows some of the influences of ancient Rome on America’s constitutional republic.
Complete the chart.
What is "all citizens were subject to the same rules, displayed in public"?
300
The First Amendment's right to petition, the Second Amendment's right to bear arms, and the Eighth Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual punishment all trace back to this earlier English document.
What is the English Bill of Rights?
300
This was a core aspect of the Enlightenment, valued over religious faith or tradition.
What is reason and science?
300
Complete the title of the left column.
What are natural rights?
300
This is why the Founders believed religious liberty should be a protected right.
What is "many people came to America to escape persecution and practice religion freely"?
400
Government divided between consuls and other officials in ancient Rome is an example of this principle.
What is separation of powers?
400
"No freeman shall be taken or imprisoned... except by the lawful judgment of his peers or by the law of the land" — this Magna Carta excerpt guarantees this right.
What is trial by jury?
400
This thinker's ideas about natural law and the social contract directly influenced the Declaration of Independence.
Who is John Locke?
400
Unlike separation of powers or self-government, this constitutional ideal — that everyone, including rulers, is bound by and accountable to the law — traces back to the Judeo-Christian tradition.
What is rule of law?
400
Freedom of speech, the right to bear arms, and the right to a jury trial were all protected under the English Bill of Rights — but this right, later central to American ideals, was not among them.
What is freedom of religion?
500
This statement best describes the key political difference between ancient Athens and the United States.
What is "Athens was a direct democracy while the U.S. is a representative democracy"?
500
Signed by King John of England in 1215, this document limited the power of the monarch and stated that no free man could be imprisoned except by lawful judgment of his equals.
What is the Magna Carta?
500
Complete the analogy: John Locke is to natural rights as Thomas Jefferson is to this.
What are unalienable rights?
500
This feature of the U.S. government system most directly reflects the thinking of Baron de Montesquieu.
What are the three branches of government (separation of powers)?
500
"The blood of the slain, the weeping voice of nature cries, 'Tis time to part" — Paine used this emotional appeal to argue for this drastic action, insisting it was never heaven's design for one country to rule over the other.
What is declaring independence from Great Britain?