Undergraduate 

Greek MA

Athenian Democracy: Model Or Mob-Rule? CLASSIC4001

  • Academic Session: 2024-25
  • School: School of Humanities
  • Credits: 20
  • Level: Level 4 (SCQF level 10)
  • Typically Offered: Either Semester 1 or Semester 2 (Alternate Years)
  • Available to Visiting Students: Yes
  • Collaborative Online International Learning: No

Short Description

This course offers the opportunity to study the earliest form of democracy in the Western world as well as ancient and modern attitudes to it.

Timetable

Two one-hour sessions per week over 10 weeks as scheduled on MyCampus. This is one of the Honours

options in Classics and may not run every year. The options that are running this session are

available on MyCampus.

Excluded Courses

None

Co-requisites

None

Assessment

Examination (90 minutes duration) - 50%

Essay (3,000 words) - 50%

Main Assessment In: April/May

Are reassessment opportunities available for all summative assessments? Not applicable

Reassessments are normally available for all courses, except those which contribute to the Honours classification. For non Honours courses, students are offered reassessment in all or any of the components of assessment if the satisfactory (threshold) grade for the overall course is not achieved at the first attempt. This is normally grade D3 for undergraduate students and grade C3 for postgraduate students. Exceptionally it may not be possible to offer reassessment of some coursework items, in which case the mark achieved at the first attempt will be counted towards the final course grade. Any such exceptions for this course are described below. 

Course Aims

This course will provide the opportunity to:

■ Explore in detail the history of the earliest form of democracy in the Western world as well as ancient and modern attitudes to it

■ Engage closely with a range of literary sources for Classical Athenian democracy

■ Become familiar with important secondary literature on the subject

■ Discuss ancient and modern theories and opinions about democracy

■ Reflect on democracy, ancient and modern, as a type of constitution

Intended Learning Outcomes of Course

By the end of this course students will be able to:

■ Describe the historical context of the Classical Athenian democracy and its functioning

■ Analyse and evaluate a range of ancient texts as historical sources for Athenian democracy and ancient attitudes to it

■ Summarize and evaluate modern theories about the Athenian democracy

■ Formulate your own interpretations of the sources with due regard for recent scholarship

■ Formulate lucid arguments which demonstrate engagement with primary sources and secondary literature

Minimum Requirement for Award of Credits

Students must submit at least 75% by weight of the components (including examinations) of the course's summative assessment.