Problems in Athenian Democracy

Demokratia (“People Power”)

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 1317bDemocratic 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

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

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 AgainstCimon, Aristides, and Themistocles

Pnyx Hill

Moses Finley on the Sovereignty of the Demos

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”

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

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

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

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.

Thucydides (2.65) on Pericles and His Successors

Elitist or Populist

Bottom Line: Who Pays?

Summary of Elitist Elements at Athens

A “Face-to-Face” Democracy? 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

Election of Highest Magistracies “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 “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 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

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 sub-boatswains, 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

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

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

Democracy Ancient and Modern

Key Issues

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

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

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

[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

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

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

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)

City-State “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.”

Nation-State “Only the nation-state

has the capacity to respond fully to collective preferences.”

“Therefore the nation-state (but no smaller units) should be completely autonomous.”

Alexander Hamilton, “Notes for a Speech,” New York Ratifying Convention, July 12, 1788

[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

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 State-Designate 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.