Download Athenian Democracy

ATHENIAN
DEMOCRACY
“PERICLES’
FUNERAL
ORATION” IN
THUCYDIDES,
HISTORY OF THE
PELOPONNESIAN
WAR
LECTURE 18
FEBRUARY 22, 2017
LECTURE OUTLINE
1. Institutions of Athenian Democracy
2. The Value of Democracy
PERICLES’ FUNERAL ORATION
•
Athenian democracy is not modern democracy
•
Citizen as hero
•
Those who don’t participate in the civic life are
“useless” (2.40)
•
Value of the life of the citizen: “his merit as a citizen
[is] more than outweighed his demerits as an
individual” (2.42)
•
Vs. View in modern democracies
THE RISE OF ATHENS
•
Greek city-states defeat the Persian Empire twice
•
Marathon (490BC) & Salamis (480BC)
•
Athens & Sparta emerge dominant powers
•
Sparta: Land infantry, aristocratic monarchy, no
expansion policy, “spartan” culture
•
Athens: Naval power, democracy, grows an
empire, philosophy & art
•
Peloponnesian War (432-404BC)
•
Regional struggle
•
Athens loses
•
End of democratic experiment
•
•
Thirty Tyrants & Alexander the Great (330s)
Polis gives way to empire
DEMOCRACY
•
demos + kratia (people + power/force)
•
Democratic liberty is “to rule and be ruled in turns”
(Aristotle, Politics)
•
Class struggle core tension of the polis
•
Demos as common people & as all the people
•
•
Who are the demos?
•
Population: 250-300,000
•
40-60,000 active citizens
Who doesn’t count?
•
•
Children (under 20), women, slaves, and resident
aliens
Slave economy
•
Makes democratic participation possible
DEMOCRATIC INSTITUTIONS
•
Assembly (ekklēsia)
•
All citizens could attend (usually about 6000
present)
•
Demos are the people in assembly
•
Vote on proposals by show of hands
•
Narrowing of Assembly’s decisions in 4th century
•
Decrees vs Laws
•
Council (boulē)
•
500 members drawn by lot
•
Requirements: Over 30, male, & Athenian
•
Serve 1yr, only twice in your life
•
Set agenda for the Assembly
•
Executed Assembly’s decisions
•
Courts
•
6000 selected by lot annually to serve as the jury
pool
•
Requirements: Over 30, male, & Athenian
•
Juries selected by lot from those present
•
Ruled on appeals and political cases
EQUALITY
•
Central value of democracy
•
•
Equal as citizens (brackets inequalities)
Lots & elections
•
About 600 of 700 offices selected by lot, others
by election
•
Elected offices were ones that needed expertise
•
Guards on using lot as a selection method
•
Initiating a proposal in Assembly
•
“Anyone who wishes”
•
Freedom & risk
•
Responsibility for what you initiate
PERICLES’ EULOGY
•
•
Athenian democracy is rooted and connected
•
Ancestors, our fathers, ourselves
•
Threat of bad individualism
Speech & Knowledge
•
Democracy requires speech
•
Pericles lays out the problem with speaking to others (2.35)
•
Deeds vs Words
•
Deliberation requires knowledge
•
What is “knowledge without effeminacy” (2.40)?