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TU 110 Integrated Humaities
Politics - Greek Democracy
14th December 2010
Contents
1.
What, where & when was Ancient Greece?
2.
Greek Democracy
3.
Differences between Greek democracy and modern
democracy
4.
Conclusion
1. What, where & when was Ancient
Greece?
 Ancient Greece - 8thC BCE to 146 BCE
 Classical Period – 500 to 336 BCE - In this period Athens
reached its greatest political and cultural heights:
 the full development of the democratic system of government under
the Athenian statesman Pericles;
 the building of the Parthenon on the Acropolis;
 the creation of the tragedies of Sophocles, Aeschylus and Euripides;
 and the founding of the philosophical schools of Socrates and Plato.
 Ancient Greece was really hundreds of independent city-states or
poleis.
 Some 1500 separate communities scattered round the
Mediterranean and Black Sea shores "like frogs around a pond“ (Plato)




small, independent communities
male-dominated
bound together by race.
membership in the polis was hereditary and could not be passed on to
someone outside the citizen family
 Plato fixed the number of citizens in an ideal state at 5040 adult males -
the one true criteria of the size of the polis was that all the citizens know
one another
 Considered to be the seminal culture which provided the
foundation of Western civilization.
Greek Parthenon
US Supreme Court
2. Greek Democracy
Origins of the word “Democracy””
Greek
Demos
Kratos
-
English
People
Rule
Greek word “demokratia” was ambiguous.
 It meant literally 'people-power'.
 But who were the people to whom the power belonged?
 Was it all the people - the 'masses'?
 Or only some of the people - the duly qualified citizens?
 The Greek word demos could mean either.
 Origins lie in the ‘Polis’ (City State)
 Aristotle "it is necessary for the citizens to be of such a number
that they knew each other's personal qualities and thus can elect
their officials and judge their fellows in a court of law sensibly."
 In the society of the polis – all citizens were intimately and
directly involved in politics, justice, military service, religious
ceremonies, intellectual discussion, athletics and artistic pursuits
From a Monarchy to a democracy:
 1066 B.C. the last king of Athens was replaced by an “archon” (a chief
magistrate).
 The position of ”archon” was nearly identical at first to a king. They
ruled for life and had to be from a royal family.
 In 752 B.C. the position of ”archon” was limited to a term of ten
years.
 In 683 B.C. the office was changed from one ”archon” to nine serving
for one-year terms
“Council of the Areopagus,”
 Existed long before the democracy, and its powers and
composition changed many times over the centuries.
 Originally, it was the central governing body of Athens,
 Under the democracy, it was the court with jurisdiction over cases
of homicide and certain other serious crimes.
 After an Athenian had served as one of the nine archons, his
conduct in office was investigated, and if he passed that
investigation he became a member of the Areopagus. Tenure was
for life.
Draco – c. 7th BCE
Wrote the first constitution featured several major innovations:
 All laws were written, thus made known to all literate citizens,
who could make appeal to the Areopagus for injustices
 The laws distinguish between murder and involuntary homicide.
The laws, however, were particularly harsh:
 any debtor whose status was lower than that of his creditor was forced
into slavery
 death penalty was the punishment for even minor offenses.
" For nearly all crimes there was the same penalty of death . A man who was
convicted of idleness, or who stole a cabbage or an apple, was liable to death
no less than the robber of temples or the murderer." Plutarch (Life of
Solon) :
“Draconian“ - marked by extreme severity or cruelty, especially
about laws or governments
A modern day Greek ‘Draco’…
 Draco Malfoy from the Harry
Potter series
 Used to introduce themes of
intolerance and bigotry into a
setting where people are often
judged solely by their blood
lineage rather than their good
character or accomplishments
 But…Draco started the ball rolling towards Athenian democracy:
 Created the ‘Council of Four Hundred’ chosen by ‘lot’
 Served as a kind of balance or check to the power of the Areopagus.
 Open to all free men who could furnish themselves with a set of
military equipment
 Solon (c.640-c.559 BCE)
 Divided Athenian subjects into four
classes based on their annual agricultural
production rather than birth.
 The two wealthiest classes were allowed
to serve on the Areopagus
 The third class were allowed to serve on
the Council of Four Hundred.
 The fourth class, the poorest, was only allowed to participate in an
Assembly; this assembly voted on affairs brought to it by the
Council of Four Hundred, and even elected local magistrates.
The Assembly:
 Included all male citizens over 18 years who were not serving on
the Council of 400 or who were not serving as public officials.
 Had to have at least 6,000 citizens in attendance
 Forty regular meetings per year – there were four meetings in
each 35 day period into which the Council's year was divided.
 The first meeting discussed the corn supply, the qualifications of
officials, questions of defense and ostracisms.
 The second meeting was open to any issue
 Third and fourth meetings were given over to debates on
religion and foreign and secular affairs.
 Special meetings or emergency sessions could be called at any
time.
 Also, revised Draco’s legal code, especially concerning slavery:
 all pledges where a man's freedom had been given as guarantee,
 freed all debtors from slavery,
 made it illegal to enslave debtors, and
 put a limit on the amount of land an individual could own
Cleisthenes
Instituted a new political organization
whereby the citizens would take a
more forceful and more direct role
in running the city-state.
First use of the word “demokratia”
(democracy) – rule by the entire
body of citizens.
 Change the Council of Four Hundred
to be the “Council of Five Hundred”
 Extended the representation and
voting rights to almost all male
citizens in Athens
Council of Five Hundred
 All male citizens over the age of thirty could serve for a term of one
year on the Council and no one could serve more than two terms in a
lifetime.
 Full time job and those who served were paid a fee
 Chosen at random from the villages in the Athenian Polis - suggested
that 35-45% of all Athenian citizens had experience on the Council
 Decided the agenda for the Assembly to debate and vote upon
Pericles (c.490-429 BCE)
 Shifted the balance decisively to the
poorest sections of society - laid the
foundations of western rational and
critical thought.
 Equality of justice and the equality of
opportunity
 Enacted legislation granting the lower
classes access to the political system and
the public offices, from which they had
previously been barred
 A citizen who held no official position or
who was not a habitual orator in the
Assembly was branded as “idiotai”.
Athenian Democracy by the time of Pericles:
3. Differences between Greek democracy
and modern democracy
a)
Scale
 Fifth-century Athenian Empire - population of around 250,000
 Of those 250,000 some 30,000 on average were full citizens -
the adult males of Athenian birth and full status.
b) Participation
 Selected by lot
 Thought to be the democratic way, since election favoured the
rich, famous and powerful over the ordinary citizen
c)
Eligibility
 Only adult male citizens
 Birth criterion of double descent - from an Athenian mother as well
as father - was strictly insisted upon.
 Women, even Athenian women, were totally excluded
 Foreigners, especially unfree slave foreigners, were excluded formally
and rigorously.
 The citizen body was a closed political elite.
 But is it really so different…?
A Short History of US voting eligibility:
1790 Only white male adult property-owners have the right to vote.
1810 Religious prerequisites for voting removed (Jews/Catholics
previously excluded)
1850 Property ownership and tax requirements eliminated. Almost
all adult white males could vote.
1870 Former slaves given the right to vote
1920 Women’s suffrage granted
1924 Native Indian suffrage granted
1965 Civil Rights Act enforced protection of voting rights based on
race
Wealth, Race,
Gender, Literacy,
Religion
All been used to
limit voting rights in
the US
 Modern American democracy appears to have been true to the
Greek model in its earliest form
 Since 1790 the two have been drawn further and further apart as
voting rights in the US have been extended to almost all citizens.
 Main remaining restriction is citizenship:
 Born in the USA
 Born outside the USA to one or two US citizens
 Born outside the USA
 5 years ‘naturalization’
 3 years ‘naturalization’ if married to a citizen
 Naturalization test – US history and government
3. Conclusions
 Athenian democracy was a radical, groundbreaking idea
 So much so, that it only lasted two hundred years (@600 – 404
BCE) and was not repeated until the late 18th Century in the USA
 Was more democratic in some ways than modern systems, less
democratic in other ways
How do Athenian democracy and Thai democracy differ?
 For example think about:
 Voting rights
 Elections
 Meetings
 Is there anything that existed in Greek democracy that you believe
should be implemented in modern Thai democracy?
 Would Athenian democracy work in the modern world, why? Why
not?