Problems in Athenian Democracy
Demokratia (“People Power”)
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Syracuse (Sicily)
Chios (Aegean sea)
Megara (Greek mainland)
Heraclea Pontica (Black Sea)
Cyrene (north African coast)
Ambracia (northwestern Greece)
Athens and “Imperial Democracy”
Aristotle, Politics 1326b
“Face-to-Face” Democracy:
The activities of the state are those of the rulers and
those of the people ruled, and the work of a ruler is to
direct the administration of and to judge law-suits; but
in order to decide questions of justice and in order to
distribute the offices according to merit it is necessary
for the citizens to know each other’s personal
characters.
Aristotle, Politics 1290a
It is a democracy when the free [and poor] are
sovereign and an oligarchy [the rule of the few] when
the rich are, but it comes about that the sovereign
class in a democracy is numerous and that in an
oligarchy small because there are many [poor] men of
free birth and few rich.
Aristotle, Politics 1317b
Democratic Political Equality
[T]he popular principle of justice is to have equality
according to number, not worth, and if this is the
principle of justice prevailing, the multitude must of
necessity be sovereign and the decision of the majority
must be final and must constitute justice, for they say that
each of the citizens ought to have an equal share; so that it
results that in democracies the poor are more powerful
than the rich, because there are more of them and
whatever is decided by the majority is sovereign. This
then is one mark of liberty which all democrats set down
as a principle of the constitution.
Athenian Imperial Democracy
Empire: Financing Democracy
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Fleet provides Jobs for Rowers (state-paid)
Pericles’ Building Program: Jobs for Athenian
Citizens
State Pay for Jury Service (fifth century BCE)
State Pay for Attendance at Ekklesia or Assembly
(early fourth century BCE)
Athenian courts for “allied” disputes: stimulation
of Athenian economy
700 Athenian imperial overseas officials
(Aristotle, Constitution of the Athenians, 24.3)
Problem #1: Populist or Elitist?
Athenian Imperial Democracy and
Locus of Political Power
Structure of Athenian Democracy
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Boule of 500 prepares business for Assembly
(Ekklesia)
Ekklesia sovereign power in foreign policy
decisions (war and peace)
Ekklesia exercises judicial and legislative powers
Sovereignty of Decree by Assembly (Aristotle,
Politics, 1292a-1293a)
Dokimasia and Euthynae of Generals (Strategoi)
Ostracism
Dēmos (People) as Jury
Ostraka Cast Against
Cimon, Aristides, and Themistocles
Pnyx Hill
Moses Finley on the Sovereignty of the Demos
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Size of Athenian democracy makes control of
Ekklesia (Assembly) through networks of
clientage unlikely
Variability of Composition of Ekklesia
(Assembly)
Vulnerability of Speakers of Ekklesia (Assembly)
Pericles’ Deposition from Board of 10 Generals
(Strategoi) and Fine (Plutarch, Life of Pericles,
35)
Robert Michels, “Iron Law of Oligarchy”
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Political Parties: A Sociological Study of the Oligarchical
Tendencies of Modern Democracies
Obstacles to Direct Popular Government
 Incompetence of Masses
 Lack of Time for Direct Self-Government
Indispensability of Elite Leaders
 Economic Superiority
 Historical Superiority
 Intellectual Superiority
Elitist Elements in
Classical Athenian Democracy
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Demand for Knowledgeable Speakers (political
connections, education, rhetorical training)
Evidence that People (demos) chose rich men as
leaders on grounds of incorruptibility
Assembly Speakers: Few in number, of
Aristocratic Backgrounds
Election of Strategoi without Limitation of
Iteration (Pericles as strategos year after year)
Workings of Athenian Democracy
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40,000-60,000 adult male citizens with full
political privileges (out of a total population of
some 300,000-350,000)
Approximately 6,000 adult males assemble on
hill of the Pnyx for any given meeting of
Ekklesia (Assembly)
Direct, “Face-to-Face Democracy”? (cf.
Aristotle, Politics, 1326b3-7)
Spokesmen of demos or people (prostates tou
demou) perhaps 10-15 at any given time
Thucydides (2.65) on Pericles and His Successors
Pericles, indeed, by his rank, ability, and known integrity,
was enabled to exercise an independent control over the
multitude—in short, to lead them instead of being led by
them….Whenever he saw them unseasonably and
insolently elated, he would with a word reduce them to
alarm; on the other hand, if they fell victims to a panic, he
could at once restore them to confidence. In short, what
was nominally a democracy was becoming in his
hands government by the first citizen. With his
successors it was different. More on a level with one
another, and each grasping at supremacy, they ended up
committing even the conduct of state affairs to the whims
of the multitude.
Elitist or Populist
Bottom Line: Who Pays?
Summary of Elitist Elements at Athens
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A “Face-to-Face” Democracy?
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Election of Highest Magistracies
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“The characteristics of democracy are as follows...that the appointment to all offices,
or to all but those that require special experience and skill, should be made by lot.”
(Aristotle, Politics 6.1317b)
Pledge to Maintain Socio-Economic Status Quo
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Total Population in late 5th-century (@350,000)
@60,000 citizens (adult males); meeting place of Assembly (Pnyx) accommodated
about 6,000
Women, Resident Aliens, Slaves Excluded
“As soon as the Archon enters upon his office, he proclaims through the public herald
that whatever a person possessed before he entered upon his Archonship he will have
and possess until the end of his term.” (Aristotle, Constitution of the Athenians 56.2)
“Speakers” of the People
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Few in number at any given time
Drawn from socio-economic elite
Have had the best education in the art of rhetoric (persuasion and public oratory)
Thought to be less susceptible to corruption and bribery
Liturgies and Taxes
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Eisphora (Progressive (?) Property Tax
imposed in 428 BCE, Thucydides, 3.19)
Trierarchy
Choregia
Antidosis
Archon’s Oath to Protect Property
(Aristotle, Constitution of the Athenians,
56.2)
“Old Oligarch,” Pseudo-Xenophon,
Constitution of the Athenians, 1.2
First I want to say this: there [in Athens] the poor and
the people generally are right to have more than the
high-born and wealthy for the reason that it is the
people who man the ships and impart strength to the
city; the steersmen, the boatswains, the subboatswains, the look-out officers, and the
shipwrights—these are the ones who impart strength
to the city more than the hoplites, the high-born, and
the good men.
Athens: Democracy and Imperialism
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Athenian Naval Empire
Importance of Rowers in Fleet to Maintenance of Empire
Rowers come from Lowest Socio-Economic Class in
Athens (Thetes)
Thetes Gain Political Power with Growth of Empire
Other Greek States Pay Annual Tribute to Athens
Imperial Revenue Finances Experiment in Democracy
(payment for participation) and Public Works Projects in
Athens (employment for poor Athenian citizens)
Problem #2: Democracy Ancient
and Modern
Democracy Ancient and Modern
In modern discussions, ‘democratic’ or more properly
perhaps ‘Western democratic’ regimes are assumed to be
liberal, individualistic, capitalist, and secularist. Democratic
Athens was none of these things.
~ Hugh Bowden, Classical Athens and the Delphic Oracle
Key Issues
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Ancient Greek Democracy: Typologies and Realities
 “Arithmetical” and “Geometric” Political Equality
 Athens as Radical, “Arithmetical” Democracy?
“Democracy” in Western Political Thought
 Athenian Dissidents
 The Federalist
“Alienation” of Democracy
 Size and Democracy
 From Participation to Representation (Alexander
Hamilton)
Ancient Greek Ideas on Political Equality
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Numbers in Equations represent relative degree of political power and
influence; numbers in parentheses represent degree of wealth and
property in relation to the first element:
Arithmetical: 1+1(2)+1(4)=Political Equality (Justice)
Geometrical: 1+2(2)+4(4)=Political Equality (Justice)
“[T]he popular principle of justice is to have equality according to
number, not worth, and if this is the principle of justice prevailing, the
multitude must of necessity be sovereign and the decision of the majority
must be final and must constitute justice, for they say that each of the
citizens ought to have an equal share; so that it results that in
democracies the poor are more powerful than the rich, because there are
more of them and whatever is decided by the majority is sovereign. This
then is one mark of liberty which all democrats set down as a principle of
the constitution.” (Aristotle, Politics 6.1317b)
“Equality itself is unjust” (On Greek-style egalitarianism, which does not
consider sufficiently socio-economic gradations and aristocratic ancestral
privilege) ~ Cicero, Republic, 1.27.43
Negative Assessments
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Western Political Thinkers, from Plato to Federalists,
condemn Athenian Democracy
Democracy: Rule of the Mob
Democracy: Threat to Social Hierarchies; Economic and
Political Leveling; Demagogues; Threats to Property
Western Political Thinkers Respond to the “Arithmetical”
Typology of Democracy; not Historical Realities of
Classical Athens
Some Views on Dēmokratia
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[T]hey everywhere assign more to the worst persons, to
the poor, and to the popular types than to the good men:
in this very point they will be found manifestly preserving
their democracy. For the poor, the popular, and the base,
inasmuch as they are well off and the likes of them are
numerous, will increase the democracy; but if the
wealthy, good men are well off, the men of the people
create a strong opposition to themselves. And everywhere
on earth the best element is opposed to democracy.
 Pseudo-Xenophon (“Old Oligarch”)
Some Views on Dēmokratia
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Are not popular assemblies frequently subject to the
impulses of rage, resentment, jealousy, avarice, and of
other irregular and violent propensities? Is it not well
known that their determinations are often governed by a
few individuals in whom they place confidence, and are,
of course, liable to be tinctured by the passions and views
of those individuals?
 Federalist, number 6
Some Views on Dēmokratia
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Hence it is that such democracies have ever been
spectacles of turbulence and contention; have
ever been found incompatible with personal
security or the rights of property; and have in
general been as short in their lives as they have
been violent in theirs deaths.
 Federalist, number 10
Some Views on Dēmokratia
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Had every citizen been a Socrates, every
Athenian assembly would still have been a mob.
 Federalist, number 14
Dimensions of Democracy
(Typologies, not Historical Realities)
R.A. Dahl and E.R. Tufte, Size and Democracy (Stanford 1973)
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City-State
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“In order for citizens
fully to control the
decisions of the polity,
they must participate
directly in making
those decisions.”
“In order to
participate directly in
making decisions, the
number of citizens
must be very small.”
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Nation-State
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“Only the nation-state
has the capacity to
respond fully to
collective
preferences.”
“Therefore the nationstate (but no smaller
units) should be
completely
autonomous.”
Alexander Hamilton, “Notes for a Speech,” New
York Ratifying Convention, July 12, 1788
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[The American political system is] a
representative democracy…Democracy in my
sense, [is] where the whole power of the
government [is] in the people, whether exercised
by themselves, or by their representatives chosen
by them either mediately or immediately and
legally accountable to them.
Some Recent Formulations
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President George W. Bush’s “National Security
Strategy,” published 17 September 2002, stated that the
goal of American foreign policy is “to bring the hope of
democracy, development, free markets, and free trade
to every corner of the world.”
At her confirmation hearing as Secretary of StateDesignate before the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee (January 18, 2005), Dr. Condolezza Rice
spoke of “a fully democratic hemisphere, bound by
common values and free trade.”
Dr. Rice employed the words “democracy,”
“democratic,” and “democratically” thirty-four times in
her brief address. She never stated with any precision
what the word is supposed to mean
Ellen Meiksins Wood
“Ambiguous Ancestry” (66)
The concept of democracy has now become wonderfully elastic,
permitting liberals to confine it to parliamentary representation
and civil liberties, or perhaps even to the ‘alternation of elites’…
leaving intact the gross disparities of class power, while
neoliberals and conservatives can identify it with the market.
What all these flexible definitions of democracy have in common
is the eclipse of its literal meaning.
Ellen Meiksins Wood
“Ambiguous Ancestry” (60-61)
[T]he progress of modern democracy has been far from
unambiguous; for as political rights have become less
exclusive, they have also lost much of their power; and the
word democracy itself has been domesticated and diluted,
emptied of its social content, its reference to the distribution
of class power.