Democracy in Athens | Essay

Democracy in Athens quizWhere did the real big business humans lie in Athens radical land?Fifth-century, Athenian democracy has often served as a paradigm for participatory radicalism from the French and American Revolutions to contemporary Anarchist Thought. And yet, the historical reality of the Athenian constitution may pay been very different to what modern ideologues have envisaged. Was Athenian democracy truly a rule by the more, as the classical word suggests? Or did the upper classes maintain their reaching over real power down to the 4th century? This sincere tension is exemplified in two contrasting passages in Thucydides narrative. In the questionable Funeral Oration, Thucydides has his Pericles proudly declare that our constitution is called a democracy because power is in the hands not of a minority but of the unharmed multitude1 but a few chapters later Thucydides will release this statement on its head by claiming that in what was nominally a democracy po wer was really in the hands of peerless man Pericles himself2. This essay will argue that although real power did indeed lay with the demos, in practice a special position was reserved for rich citizens who would dominate the assembly as orators.Democracy frontmost emerged in the demise of the 6th century as a reaction to stasis or civic strife3. The Cleisthenic re diversitys of 508-7 BC resulted in an i male childomic constitution, founded on ten advanced tribes and the reorganization of Attica in demes, while the assembly, archons, Council of Areopagus and Heliaea still functi oned as they had done under Solon and Peisistratus. The new council of 500, based on the 10 tribes, was now gradually replacing the downhearted institution of the Areopagus, while the extensive use of lot in selecting the officials, emphasise the equality of all citizens, who now enjoyed equal political rights in the preference of officials whether at the deme take (demarche), the tribal level (ge neral) or the state level (archons and councillors). Democratic reforms continued end-to-end the fifth century. In 501/0 the greatness of the archonships was greatly reduced by the introduction of the ten strategoi (generals). By 487 archons were selected by lot, while in 462 the parliamentary leader Ephialtes was assassinated for his involvement in further weakening the jurisdiction of the Areopagus4. Soon after, Pericles will introduce political pay of jurors and other officials while even the chief archonships were now capable to smallholders and -at least in theory- to the thetes. In post-Periclean Athens, a new generation of slopped non-aristocrats like Cleon, Hyperbolus and Androcles dominated the Athenian political scene as champions of the people and promoted further the interests of the Athenian masses.The Athenian constitution of the middle and late 5th century was therefore a genuinely popular constitution, a form of government that was primarily concerned with impro ving the welfare of the citizen mass. The Athenian demos was authorise with direct pick out in the Assembly and the popular jury-courts, by rhytidectomy hands, drawing ballots, or inscribing on ostraca. They enjoyed political liberty, freedom of speech and equality in the first place the law. The people quite a than the Areopagus- were directly responsible for the examinationof ones conduct while in office5. With respect to foreign policy, democratic Athens embarked on a staunched imperialistic policy which entailed significant benefits for the citizen mass. Measures such(prenominal) as state pay for jurors, Assembly members and sailors, the cleruchies, the liturgies and the eisphorae imposed on the rich, were equal to an indirect form of redistribution of state funds to the lower classes.Yet in practice the Athenian democracy retained a hint of elitism throughout its long history. Politicians -democrats and oligarchs alike- were always members of the upper classes of Athenian society. Cleisthenes, Alcibiades and Pericles himself were all members of the Alcmeonid family, one of the oldest and most illustrious gene of Attica. And even new men like Cleon and Hyperbolus or even Demosthenes were wealthy enough to afford the appropriate rhetorical genteelness provided by the sophists. While the wider demos would exercise its political power by voting for or against the issue at stake, it was always men from the propertied classes that would retch forth a proposal or move a decree. As a consequence Athenian politics tended to be personal rather than ideological, revolving around personal charisma and rhetorical skills rather than party organization6. This explains the normal view expressed by conservatives such as Thucydides, Aristophanes and Plato that the demos was always be led by the rhetores led wisely under Pericles, and led wide by his lesser successors7.While acknowledging the special role played by these wealthy Athenians vis--vis the citizen mass one should dismiss the oligarchic view of the Athenian demos as a nave, passive spectator of the rhetorical skills of its leading as an exaggeration. Athenian Assemblies were proverbially harsh in holding their leading responsible for failures. One should think of the aftermath of Arginusai in 406 BC and the slew of Thucydides himself8. Even Pericles own political career was far from rosy. As one reads through Plutarchs lifetime of Pericles the Thucydidean concept of Athens as fundamentally the rule by one man capturems less and less plausible. Pericles, his wife and his protgs, Pheidias and Anaxagoras, were repeatedly -and often successfully- prosecuted by political opponents like Thucydides son of Melesias9 his sons were never granted an Athenian citizenship despite his passionate plea before the Assembly and a fine was imposed on him when the invading Spartans pillage most other country estates but not his10. Unfair as these measures may sound, they demonstrate that even the Olympian was susceptible to the fierce denunciation of the Ecclesia. The Athenian demos was not only one of the most powerful citizen bodies in the Greek world it was also the most experienced and demanding when it came to judging personalities, go up concepts, law cases, policy recommendations or even theatrical plays. Politicians could come and go but the Athenians knew that the final word would always rest with the demos.BIBLIOGRAPHYHornblower, S. (2002) The Greek universe of discourse 479-323 BC, New York Routledge.Meiggs, R. (1999) The Athenian Empire, Oxford Oxford University Press. D. Lewis ed.(1988) A Selection of Greek Historical Inscriptions, Oxford Clarendon Press.Wilcken, U. (1962) Griechshe Geschichte im Rahmen der Altertumsgeschichte, Mnchen.Plutarch, Life of Kimon, Bernadotte Perrin trans for sale in the Perseus Digital Library, at http//www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/p school text?doc=Perseustext1999.01.0182text=Cim.chapter=1section=1 accessed on 15.03.2006.P lutarch, Life of Pericles, Bernadotte Perrin trans available in the Perseus Digital Library, at http//www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseustext1999.01.0182text=Per.chapter=1section=1, accessed on 15.03.2006.(Pseudo-)Aristotle, The Athenian Constitution, G. Kenyon trans, available in the Perseus Digital Library, at http//www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0046query=head%3D%2316, accessed on 15.03.2006.Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War, original and translation in G. P. Goold ed, Loeb upright Library, Cambridge, Massachusetts Harvard University Press, 1998.1Footnotes1 Thucydides, II. 432 ibid., II. 65.3 For the relation between stasis and democratic reforms see Pseudo-Aristotle, 20.1 Cleisthenes, getting the worse of the party struggle, attached the people to his following by proposing to give political power to the masses.4 For the weakening of the Areopagus see Plutarch, Lfe of Kimon, 15 and Aeschelus, Oresteia for dating the intro duction of the lot see Hornblower (200225) and Meiggs Lewis(198889-94) for the first recorded instance of a paid council see Thucydides, VIII, 69.5 All classical words in brackets are taken from Pericles Funeral Oration.6 Hornblower (200225)7 Thucydides, II. 658 ibid. IV, 104-79 Plutarch, Life of Pericles, 3210 Thucydides, II. 65