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Athenian Democracy

The ancient Greek city-states had different political systems, including oligarchy where power rested with a small elite, and monarchy with supreme power in an individual. Democracy originated in Athens in the 6th century BC under Solon and Kleisthenes' reforms, which led to rule by the people (demos). Athenian democracy allowed all adult male citizens to vote and hold office, with governance through the assembly, council, and courts. However, it excluded women, slaves, foreigners and was therefore not a fully inclusive democracy.

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222 views17 pages

Athenian Democracy

The ancient Greek city-states had different political systems, including oligarchy where power rested with a small elite, and monarchy with supreme power in an individual. Democracy originated in Athens in the 6th century BC under Solon and Kleisthenes' reforms, which led to rule by the people (demos). Athenian democracy allowed all adult male citizens to vote and hold office, with governance through the assembly, council, and courts. However, it excluded women, slaves, foreigners and was therefore not a fully inclusive democracy.

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The concept of Th f the h city i (polis) li ) as a political environment

THE BIRTH OF DEMOCRACY IN ATHENS

The ancient Greek city-states


In the ancient times,

Greece was not a single political entity but a collection of some 1500 cities (polis) scattered around the Mediterranean. Mediterranean They all had different political systems p y Oligarchy Monarchy

Oligarchy and Monarchy


Oligarchy = the power

effectively rests with a small elite distinguished by royal, wealth, intellectual, family, military or religious hegemony. hegemony Monarchy = supreme power is absolutely p y or nominally lodged with an individual

Governments of the World

The birth of Democracy


Solon 600BC He H is i considered id d th the

originator of a new radical system of government (democracy) He was the one who initiated the constitutional reforms that a few decades later led to the first incarnation of democracy. democracy Kleisthenes Pericles

The power of the people


Democracy=demos + kratos The architects of the first
It is true that we are called a

democracies of the modern era, post-revolutionary France and the United States, claimed a line of descent from classical Greek demokratia 'government of the people by the people for the people people', as Abraham Lincoln put it. Direct democracy versus representative democracy Every citizen votes on legislation and executive bills g in their own right.

y for the democracy, administration is in the hands of the many and not of the few. But while the laws secure equal justice to all alike in their private disputes, the claim of excellence is also recognized. Pericles 5th c. BC

Direct Democracy
To make Athenian Democracy as

participatory as possible, most officials and all jurymen were selected by lot. This was thought to be the democratic way, since election favored the rich, famous and powerful over the ordinary citizen. From the mid fifth century, office holders, jurymen, members of the city's main 5 , 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 f fi field ld or workshop. k h

Athenian Democracy A Mens club


Only adult male Athenians "The real difference

citizens who had completed their military training as eighteen years and over h d the had th right i ht t to vote t i in Athens. Birth criterion of double descent - from an Athenian mother as well as father Slaves, Slaves children children, women and resident foreigners did not have this right.

between democracy and oligarchy is poverty and wealth. Wherever men rule b reason of by f their th i wealth, lth whether they be few of many, that is an oligarchy, and where the poor rule, that is democracy". Aristotle

Justice and Democracy


The courts were also

essentially political spaces, located symbolically right at the centre of the city. Aristotle in his Politics defined the democratic citizen as the man 'who has a share in (legal) judgment and office'.

Isonomia
Isonomia = equality in

front of the law 1) It requires offices to be selected by lot. 2) ) Magistrates g must account for their actions. (At the end of their allotment Athenian officials were required to account for their actions in office before the people) 3) Ordinary citizens conducted discussions in the public assembly.

Isonomia
Political theorist Hannah Arendt

argued that isonomy was equated with political freedom at least from the time of Herodotus. The word essentially denoted a state of no-rule, in which there was no distinction between rulers and ruled. It was "the equality of those who form a body of peers. Arendt goes on to argue that the Greek polis was therefore conceived not as a democracy but as an isonomy. "Democracy" was the term used by opponents of so o y who oc claimed a ed t that at "what at isonomy you say is 'no-rule' is in fact only another kind of rulership...rule by the demos," or majority.

The power of the people


Democracy, which for

many y centuries was condemned as mob rule, came to be seen positively in the 19th century and became the form of government in which almost everybody claimed to believe in the 20th century P. J. Rhodes, Ancient Democracy and Modern Id l Ideology.

Whether it is a matter of

art, , music or politics, p , it is only the best men who are capable of true judgment. The true judge must not allow himself to be influenced by the gallery nor intimidated by the clamor of the multitude. Nothing must compel him to hand down a verdict that belies his own convictions. It is his duty to teach the multitude and not to learn from them. Plato 5th c. BC

Main bodies of governance


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, when Heliaia sited on plenary session)

Osctracism
Osctracism=a procedure

under the Athenian democracy in which a prominent citizen could be expelled from the city-state of Athens for ten years. years Osctracism was used also as a way of defusing major confrontations between rival politicians (by removing one of them from the scene), neutralizing someone thought th ht t to b be a threat to the state, or exiling a potential tyrant.

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