Group items tagged

There were three political bodies where citizens gathered in numbers running into the hundreds or thousands. These are the assembly (in some cases with a quorum of 6000), the council of 500 (boule) and the courts (a minimum of 200 people, but running at least on some occasions up to 6000). Of these three bodies it is the assembly and the courts that were the true sites of power — although courts, unlike the assembly, were never simply called the demos (the People) as they were manned by a subset of the citizen body, those over thirty.

Only adult male Athenian citizens who had completed their military training as ephebes had the right to vote in Athens. The percentage of the population (of males) that actually participated in the government was about 20%. This excluded a majority of the population, namely slaves, freed slaves, children, women and metics. The women had limited rights and privileges and were not really considered citizens. The restricted movement in public and were very segregated from the men. Also disallowed were citizens whose rights were under suspension (typically for failure to pay a debt to the city: see atimia); for some Athenians this amounted to permanent (and in fact inheritable) disqualification. Still, in contrast with oligarchical societies, there were no real property requirements limiting access

The central events of the Athenian democracy were the meetings of the assembly (ἐκκλησία ekklêsia). Unlike a parliament, the assembly's members were not elected, but attended by right when they chose. Greek democracy created at Athens was a direct, not a representative democracy: any adult male citizen of age could take part, and it was a duty to do so. The officials of the democracy were in part elected by the Assembly and in large part chosen by lot. The assembly had four main functions; it made executive pronouncements (decrees, such as deciding to go to war or granting citizenship to a foreigner); it elected some officials; it legislated; and it tried political crimes. As the system evolved these last two functions were shifted to the law courts. The standard format was that of speakers making speeches for and against a position followed by a general vote (usually by show of hands) of yes or no. Though there might be blocs of opinion, sometimes enduring, on crucial issues, there were no political parties and likewise no government or opposition (as in the Westminster system). Voting was by simple majority. In the 5th century at least there were scarcely any limits on the power exercised by the assembly. If the assembly broke the law, the only thing that might happen is that it would punish those who had made the proposal that it had agreed to

The Greek word demos could mean either

Was it all the people

Or only some of the people

There's a theory that the word demokratia was coined by democracy's enemies, members of the rich and aristocratic elite who did not like being outvoted by the common herd, their social and economic inferiors.

By the time of Aristotle (fourth century BC) there were hundreds of Greek democracies. Greece in those times was not a single political entity but rather a collection of some 1,500 separate poleis or 'cities' scattered round the Mediterranean and Black Sea shores 'like frogs around a pond', as Plato once charmingly put it.

cities that were not democracies

power was in the hands of the few richest citizens

monarchies, called 'tyrannies' in cases where the sole ruler had usurped power by force rather than inheritanc

most stable,

most long-lived,

most radical, was Athens.

origin of the Athenian democracy of the fifth and fourth centuries can be traced back to Solon,

flourished

600 BC.

was a poet and a wise statesman

but not - contrary to later myth - a democrat.

Solon's constitutional reform package that laid the basis on which democracy could be pioneered

Cleisthenes was the son of an Athenian, but the grandson and namesake of a foreign Greek tyrant

also the brother-in-law of the Athenian tyrant, Peisistratus,

eized power three times

before finally establishing a stable and apparently benevolent dictatorship.

nder this political system that Athens successfully resisted the Persian onslaughts of 490 and 480/79

victory in turn encouraged the poorest Athenians to demand a greater say in the running of their city

Ephialtes and Pericles presided over a radicalisation of power that shifted the balance decisively to the poorest sections of society

he democratic Athens that won and lost an empire,

built the Parthenon,

eschylus, Sophocles,

Euripides and Aristophanes

laid the foundations of western rational and critical thought

was not, of course, without internal critics

when Athens had been weakened by the catastrophic Peloponnesian War (431-404) these critics got their chance

n 411 and again in 404 Athenian oligarchs led counter-revolutions that replaced democracy with extreme oligarchy

oligarchs were supported by Athens's old enemy, Sparta

mpossible to maintain themselves in power

democracy was restored

'blips' such as the trial of Socrates - the restored Athenian democracy flourished stably and effectively for another 80 years

There were no proper population censuses in ancient Athens,

total population of fifth-century Athens, including its home territory of Attica, at around 250,000 - men, women and children, free and unfree, enfranchised and disenfranchised. Of those

250,000 some 30,000 on average were fully paid-up citizens -

adult males of Athenian birth and full status

second key difference is the level of participation.

representative

we choose politicians to rule for us

Athenian

democracy

was direct

and in-your-face.

most officials and all jurymen were selected by lot.

This was thought to be the democratic way, since election favoured the rich, famous and powerful over the ordinary citizen.

mid fifth century, office holders, jurymen, members of the city's main administrative Council of 500, and even Assembly attenders were paid a small sum from public funds to compensate them for time spent on political service away from field or workshop.

eligibility

adult male citizens need apply for the privileges and duties of democratic government, and a birth criterion of double descent - from an Athenian mother as well as father -

Athenian democracy did not happen only in the Assembly and Council. The courts were also essentially political spaces, located symbolically right at the centre of the city.

defined the democratic citizen as the man 'who has a share in (legal) judgment and office'.

Athenian drama,

was a fundamentally political activity as well,

One distinctively Athenian democratic practice that aroused the special ire of the system's critics was the practice of ostracism -

potsherd

rom the Greek word for

decide which leading politician should be exiled for ten years

on a piece of broken pottery.

voters scratched or painted the name of their preferred candidate

6,000 citizens had to 'vote' for an ostracism to be valid,

biggest

political

risked being fried

For almost 100 years ostracism fulfilled its function of aborting serious civil unrest or even civil war

Power to the people, all the people, especially the poor majority, remained the guiding principle of Athenian democracy.