“In a democracy, there is, first, that most splendid of virtues, equality before the law.” - Herodotus
Democracy
– the most cherished and promoted form of government that the world ever
encountered. Its principle of rule by the people made it an enticing and ideal
form owed much to the Greeks. But how did the Greeks developed democracy? How
the Athenian government ran before the introduction of democracy? How did
Athenian democracy developed? And how did it end and created an impact?
Athens – Creation of
a Civil Society
Athens
was as a center of Ancient Greek Civilization. It flourished as a vibrant polis or city state surrounded by
fertile lands known as Attica. Ancient Athenians already practiced election.
They elected their magistrates or archons
that administered their city’s affairs.
Archons
were annually elected 9 magistrates that came from the ranks of the landed
gentry or aristocrats. Only once a man can become an archon. The position of archon eponymos, held the highest esteem
due to the privilege of the archon’s name being used to identify a calendar
year.
While
they practiced elections, they also developed their legal system. Draco created
a comprehensive law for the city with his brutal prescription of punishments.
Following
Draco, Solon stood among as Athens’ greatest statesmen. He eased rising social
tensions in the city between the aristocrats and small farmers, which rose from
the issue of debt slavery. The aristocracy dominated the government and plunged
many farmers into debt. Small farmers who defaulted in their debts fell to
slavery as a payment. This issue Solon solved by instituting the Seisachtheia or removal of burden, under
which all previous debt disappeared and freed debt slaves from servitude.
Solon
restructured Athens’ social structure by creating the 4 phylae or tribes: the pentacosiomedimni, hippeis, zeugitae, and
thetes. However, Solon only reserved for the highest positions in Athens to the
3 top phylae, while the Thetes, where the land laborers belonged, had to be
contented with being part of the new government institutions of Athens – the Boule or the Council of 400 and the Ekklesia.
The
2 institutions aimed to cultivate civic participation of Athenian citizens. The
Ekklesia was an assembly where Athenian from the 4 phylae with an age above 18
years old discussed and voted on matters important on the city. The Boule or
the Council of 400, composed of 100 representatives from the 4 phylae, on the
other hand took care of the state affairs of Athens and execute punishments for
those found guilty of crimes. These reforms of Solon established the
foundations to which Cleisthenes later built a more developed Athenian
democracy.
After
Solon’s rule, tyrants took over Athens. Tyrants, unlike in the modern sense of
the word synonymous to brutality, meant during the time of the Athenians someone
who usurped power and claim absolute rule over the state. The rule of tyrants
ended only in 510 BCE, when an aristocrat Cleisthenes took power and developed
Athenian democracy to prevent there resurgence.
Cleisthenes and
Demokratia
In
507 BCE, Cleisthenes introduced demokratia,
or rule of the demos or people, a
sort of a slogan that guided several of his reforms for Athens. He restructured
the government as well as the phylae. And he changed the voting system to ensure
equal opportunities. In effect, he built upon Solon’s policies and to develop
an early form of direct democracy.
The Three Branches of
Government
Like
modern day democracies, the Athenian democracy of Cleisthenes centered around 3
institutions, dedicated in giving voice to the Athenian people. These three 3
institutions included: the Ekklessia,
Boule, and Dikasteria.
The
Ekklesia institutionalized the participation of the people in governance. The
Ekklesia allowed any men 18 years old and above from the whole Attica to
attend. It convened 40 times annually in a hillside auditorium near the
Acropolis called the Pnyx. Its powers
included the formulation Athens’ foreign policy, which included the decision to
declare war and negotiate peace. It also approved new laws and reviewed new
ones. Any decisions of the Ekklesia required a simple majority.
The
Ekklesia had long existed before the time of Cleisthenes, but he added one
power to it that spelled the difference – ostracism.
Ostracism
became one of the Ekklesia feared power. The practiced aimed to remove anyone
in the city deemed too powerful or ambitious to be a tyrant. It became also a
way to punish unpopular or incompetent officials. The process condemned
Athenian men to be expelled from the city for a decade. The Ekklesia voted by
writing the name of the person to be punished in a potsherd, later called as
ostracon. The practice of Ostracism resulted to the word ostracized, meaning to
exclude.
Because
of the powers and the composition of the Ekklesia, it became the center of
Athenian political life. But the Ekklesia did not possessed absolute power, but
shared it with another institution – the Boule.
The
Boule, or the Council of 500, was the continuation of the Council of 400 that
Solon established. The change in number came as a result of reforms made in the
phylae or tribes, which later to be
discussed. As the name stated, 500 men formed the Boule and represented the 10
phylae of Athens, each having 50 representatives. The membership to Boule,
however, was not voluntary or through elections, but by random selection
through lottery. The lottery included names of Athenian men aged 30 years old
and above and did not served in the Boule before.
The
lottery eliminated issues of popularity vote and vote buying. It also heavily
reduced the chance of citizens entering the government with ulterior motives.
The only issue was whose name included in the lottery – which usually were the
most prominent men.
Within
the Boule was the Prytane, a smaller
group of men that were available to work 24 hours a day for daily
administration of the Boule. Its members served for a month. A chairman,
elected for every 24 hours, was a prestigious position and could only held once
in a lifetime, especially later when the chairman of the Prytane also served as
chairman of the Boule.
The
Council of 500 served as the backbone of Athens’ government. Its men met almost
every day and handled the management of Athens, from weight standardization, to
welfare of the horses, to the maintenance of the military and infrastructure.
The
Boule checked and balanced power with the Ekklesia. The Boule managed the
agendas of the Ekklesia, although sometimes, the latter can add a topic that
the former did not placed. In foreign policy, the Boule obeyed whatever the
Ekklesia approved. They also had the responsibilities to welcome as well as to
deal with emissaries from different nations and city-states.
The
Dikasteria or popular courts served as a judiciary. They tried any cases
brought by the people of Athens. Fiscal offices did not exist then so the
Dikasteria received any kinds of cases, even politically motivated ones. Athens
then do not had any lawyers so the citizens themselves acted as the prosecution
and defense. Once again, a simple majority voted was needed for any sentence or
decision of the body.
500
jurors made up the body, once again chosen by lottery. The body only allowed
male citizens aged 30 years old and above to serve in the courts. The jurors of
the body received salaries, even though it was small. The salaries of the
jurors came from Athens’ customs collection and taxes from the foreign
residents, and the so-called trierarchi,
voluntary contributions of the wealthy for specific projects.
Reform of the Phylae
Cleisthenes
also changed the phylae, which served as the basis of representation to the
Boule. Before, 4 phylaes existed and based more on land and wealth. Cleisthenes
changed the basis of phylaes to geographical features. He divided Attica into
10 phylae namely Erechtheis, Aegeis, Pandionis, Leontis, Acamantis, Oeneis,
Cecropis, Hippothontis, Aeantis, and Antiochis.
Each
of the phylae were composed of three trittys
based on geographical features namely inland or rural, coastal, and city or
urban. The groupings of the trittys to form a phylae disregarded their
proximity to each other. Thus, some phylae had trittys far away from each
other. In effect, the system prevented the rise of local blocs as well as
allowed equal representation to the Boule. The reform also led to increase in
the number of members of the Boule from 400 to 500.
Limitations of
Cleisthenes and Athenian Democracy
Although
Cleisthenes introduction of democracy aimed to increase the participation of
the demos or citizens of Athens, the classification of being a citizen,
however, weakened the purpose. Athenian citizens, meaning those who had both
Athenian parents numbered around only 100,000 in the 5th century compared
little to 150,000 slaves and 10,000 metoikoi or foreign residents living in
Attica. Moreover, participation to the Ekklesia allowed only men 18 years old
and above, further dropping the number of eligible participants to 40,000. And
it did not stop there, not all 40,000 participated in the Ekklesia because the
Pynx auditorium, the meeting place of the assembly, only had the capacity of
6,000, thus, the total number of participants.
Impact and End of
Athenian Democracy
Although
Athenian democracy had its limitation, many of the city’s greatest
intellectuals wrote highly about its principles. Herodotus, the Father of
History, wrote, “In a democracy, there is, first, that most splendid of
virtues, equality before the law.” Other writers who valued democracy in their
writings included Aristotle as well as Thucydides.
Cleisthenes
reforms’ aimed to prevent the rise of tyrants, however, the threat remained. In
507 BCE, Isagoras, Cleisthenes’ rival, sought the aid of Spartan King Cleomenes
to end democracy and establish a new oligarchy. Cleisthenes fled Athens and
Isagoras started to build up his oligarchy. The Athenian people, however,
resisted and overthrew Isagoras. The Ekklesia then called Cleisthenes and his
allies back.
Democracy
remained the foundation of Athens’ civil society. For the over 3 centuries,
democracy reigned in Athens, with some brief intrusion of tyrants, especially
after the end of the Peloponnesian in 404 BCE. It only came to an end with the
rise of Philip of Macedonia, the father of Alexander the Great. His
incorporation of Athens meant governance of the city-state must yield to his
absolute rule.
Summing Up
Athenian
democracy took centuries to develop. From simple election of archons, it
blossomed with institution dedicated into bringing in men from every classes to
participate in making decisions vital to their city’s survival and welfare.
Social
tensions led to development of laws as well as reforms to make Athenian society
harmonious or at least to prevent civil war and chaos. Nevertheless, tyranny
developed but in the end democracy continued to return to Athens. Cleisthenes
led the effort to prevent another rise of tyranny and began series of
introductions and reforms that shaped Athenian democracy for centuries.
His
reforms led to the broadening of franchise to other men in the society. He
culminated direct democracy by allowing all men to be heard in an assembly. He
reformed the institution of phylae from being based on property and wealth to
become founded on geographical division. And even in this division, he made
sure that all people in all placed had representation.
He
also supported the practice of ostracism as a means to prevent men from
attaining too much power. But he also distributed power from the aristocracy to
the middle class as well. The method of lottery to choose representatives and
jurors as well as term limits provided equal opportunities for men to rise in
government affairs.
However,
practice sometimes deviate from the ideal, in other word, Athenian democracy
had its pitfalls. For instance, the number of participant in the Ekklesia only
represented a fraction of the population. Some lotteries also faced
manipulation by the aristocracy who controlled whose name to be placed in the
lot.
Yet,
despite its pitfalls, Cleisthenes democracy principle of rule of the people
inspired intellectuals and political movements throughout centuries that went
and will come. It built the foundations of modern Europe and the rest of the
world and continued to inspire political reforms even to this day.
Bibliography:
Books:
Ancient
Greece: An Illustrated History. Tarrytown, New York: Marshall Cavendish
Reference, 2011.
Christidis,
F. (Ed.). A History of Ancient Greek: From the Beginnings to Late Antiquity.
New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001.
Encyclopedias:
“Cleisthenes
(1).” In A Dictionary of the Ancient Greek World. By David Sacks. New York, New
York: Oxford University Press, 1995.
“democracy.”
In Encyclopedia of the Ancient Greek World. By David Sacks. New York, New York:
Facts On File, Inc., 2005.
“Greeks.”
In Encyclopedia of European Peoples. By Carl Waldman and Catherine Mason. New
York, New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2006.
Websites:
“Ancient
Greek Democracy.” In History. Accessed on January 25, 2017. URL: http://www.history.com/topics/ancient-history/ancient-greece-democracy
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In Encyclopædia Britannica. Accessed on January 27, 2017. URL: https://www.britannica.com/topic/phyle
Hornblower,
Simon. “Ancient Greek Civilization.” In Encyclopædia Britannica. Accessed on
Janaury 27, 2017. URL: https://www.britannica.com/place/ancient-Greece/The-later-Archaic-periods
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