FREE ESSAY ON DEVELOPMENT OF DEMOCRACY IN ATHENS

DEVELOPMENT OF DEMOCRACY IN ATHENS

Development of Democracy in Athens
Democracy comes from two Greek words: a noun demos which means, "people" and a verb,
kratein, which means "to rule" (Ober 120). Democracy first appeared in Athens towards the
beginning of the fifth century B.C. The biggest difference between Athenian democracy and
almost all other democracies is that the Athenian version was a direct democracy rather
than being representative. Democracy came about in Athens as a result of the growing
navel power and the reforms made by leaders such as Cleisthenes and Pericles.
The city-state of Athens, 5th century Athens to be precise, is the inventor and first
practitioner of democracy. So for 4,000 years men and women lived under forms of
government other than democratic. For some 2,500 years now democracy has existed, with
varying degrees of consistency of theory and practice. But it all began in the 5th
century before Christ in Athens. The development of democracy can be attributed to the
development of Athens as naval power. With the growing navel so grew the political voice
of the lowest property classes who provided the crews for the ships (Demand 222). To some
extent the Athenian reliance on sea power helped the course of democracy.
The biggest difference between Athenian democracy and all other democracies is that the
Athenian version was a direct democracy rather than representative. It would seem the
kind of direct democracy that Athens had might lead to anarchy at the worst and arbitrary
decisions or unstable policies at the least. Both ancient and modern democratic
experiments have shown that the will of the people sometimes is undeceive, changing to
and fro with every rhetorical wind that blows. Yet, as surprising as it may seem,
Athenian democracy worked fairly well. The main reason for its success was the quality of
the citizens. From the days of Solon the Athenians like the rest of the Greeks had a deep
respect for what they called "the golden mean", which meant that they avoided extremes in
politics (Ober 97).
The laws for Athens began with Solon, but perhaps the most influential leader for
democracy in Athens was Cleisthenes. In 510 Cleisthenes had managed to get the sons of
Peisistratus kicked out of Athens with Spartan help (Demand 157). But now the old
internal divisions, which had plagued Athens since Solon's time, reasserted themselves.
Herodotus says in his history of Greece that Cleisthenes decided to turn to the people
(Herodotus 302). Perhaps he did so solely out of practical political reasons: he needed a
powerful force on his side now that the Spartans had turned against him. Although, his
major motivation may have been to produce a government that would unify Athenians by all,
rich and poor alike. Unity, perhaps, rather democracy, was his immediate goal. But it was
democracy that he would prove to be the means to the unification of the people of
Athens.
Cleisthenes began his reforms with the reorganization of the tribes. Athens, like most
Greek cities, had been divided into tribes based on descent. This gave aristocratic
families a natural way of securing influence, because relatives tended to stick together.
The people of Attica had also often clumped in regional groupings, as in the day of
Peisistratus, and this had lead to dangerous internal disorder. Cleisthenes completely
reorganized the Athenian State into a new, artificial, and rather complicated system. In
his system the basic unit was the deme, the village in which one lived. These demes were
then put together into thirty somewhat larger units called trittyes. Cleisthenes then
formed his ten new tribes by combining one trittyes from different parts of Attica, one
from the coastal region, one from the city, and one from the inland (Demand 159). These
tribes would form the units in the Athenian army, and the Athenian Council.
According to the Athenians, the source of constitutional power rested in the hands of all
the citizens. Ideas were expressed directly through the Assembly, which consisted of all
male citizens over eighteen years of age and who were willing to attend the sessions. The
most important body in Athens was the popular Assembly. The Assembly would meet a number
of times each month and the first 6,000 Athenians to arrive participated in the
proceedings. Cleisthenes increased the power of the Assembly largely by making use of it
to push through his reforms. By this precedent he ensured that all-important laws had to
be passed by a vote of the people as a whole.
There were also a variety of constitutional safeguards built into the system. Any law
passed by the Assembly had to be proposed by some one, whose name appeared at the
beginning of the statue. If the citizens later thought they had made a mistake they could
attack the law in court on a "writ of unconstitutionality", that is the law was contrary
to Athenian principles (Ober 34). If the law was challenged within a year after its
passage and found unconstitutional, its proposer was fined a sum that would have bankrupt
almost any citizen. This arrangement had a tendency to discourage frivolous ideas and
glory seekers. It encouraged serious thinking and political responsibility.
Another safeguard to the Assembly was the institution of the Council of 500 by
Cleisthenes. It would consist of 50 members chosen by lot from each of the 10 tribes
(Demand 159). The Council would thus be a geographically balanced body, one of whose
functions was to tie Athenians together regardless of where they lived or who they were
related to. The Council's main task was to prepare legislation for Athenian Assembly.
Each tribe's group of fifty would be on duty for one tenth of the year to oversea any
business that needed immediate attention. The fifty candidates serving on the Council
were chosen by lot (Ober 36). The final choice by lot was one of the most democratic
devices imaginable and reduced the danger of political corruption. There was little
danger that the Council could turn into a private preserve for the wealthy or influential
because members served only one year: no man could a member two years in a row; and no
one could serve more than twice in his lifetime (Ober 38). The Council of 500 prepared
the agenda for each session of the Assembly. According to regular rules the Assembly
would take up no issue not already investigated by the Council. Normally the Council made
a recommendation to the Assembly as to the best solution of each problem.
The two political bodies of Athens, the Assembly and the Council had rather different
roles: the Council made proposals, which the Assembly could vote upon and amend. They
also may have had somewhat different memberships. To get to the Assembly meeting one
would have to come to Athens. Many Athenians lived fifteen or twenty miles out in the
countryside (Demand 224). This would have presented quite a burden for those in the
countryside. So, it is possible that those who lived in the city were over represented.
The Council, though, was automatically geographically diversified. Cleisthenes's reform,
which ensured that people from the countryside, at least had some say at that stage of
deliberations.
Cleisthenes may also have been responsible for the Athenian practice known as ostracism.
Under this procedure the Athenians would vote once a year in a sort of negative election.
The unlucky winner, assuming a minimum of 6000 votes had been cast, was sent into exile
for ten years. The ostracized citizen's property was not confiscated and he was not
convicted of any crime (Demand 161). When the ten years was up he was free to return to
Athens. The procedure was designed to prevent any one man from becoming too powerful.
This could of course be abused and sometimes-good men were sent into exile, but it seemed
to work well in the democracy of Athens.
Once the Assembly had passed a resolution the executive branch carried it out on behalf
of the people and the Council of 500 supervised its execution. Lots chose almost all the
administrative officials for one year. Usually they were selected in groups of ten to
carry out one specific function such as policing the markets or caring for the streets
(Ober 62). The Council examined all officials chosen by lot before entering office to
eliminate the physically or mentally incompetent. Any official handling public money was
subject to repeated inspections (Ober 63). The Athenians had great faith in democracy in
theory but little trust in the corruptibility of any one individual.
The Athenians also had an interesting way of dispensing justice. The courts of law were
really committees of the people. Each year a panel of 6000 jurors over thirty years of
age was drawn from those who volunteered to serve. For each trial a jury of 201 or more
were drawn by a very complicated system of lots so bribery and influence could be limited
(Ober 172). Each of the two parties in the lawsuit had to speak and act for himself,
though one could hire a professional speechwriter to compose his speech. Undoubtedly one
had to be very careful as to how one appealed to the jurors, who determined the verdict
by majority. There could be no appeal from this committee, but the people of Athens were
judges their peers, which is a democratic ideal within itself.
Democracies succeed only if the people are willing to choose and support able leaders. In
the second half of the 5th century, Athens gave its support to the mighty Pericles (Kagan
3). He was an aristocrat who rose to power by helping to reduce the power of the
conservative Council of Areopagus. In earlier times the main executive officials had been
the nine archons, one of who supervised religious functions, another was "war-leader" and
the rest were "law-keepers" in charge of justice (Demand 141-142). After their year of
service an Archon became a lifetime member of the Council of the Areopagus. But after 487
B.C., the power of the Archons were reduced and Pericles than reduced the Council of the
Areopagus's power to the supervision of religious rites.
The only officials actually elected by public vote were the city architect and the Board
of 10 Generals. The Board of 10 Generals became the real leaders of the people in the 5th
century. Pericles was a major figure on this board during the 5th century.
Pericles introduced state pay for service on the Council of 500 and the jury. In this way
even poor citizens could take part in public life (Kagan 43). One of his more popular
measures was the introduction of a law limiting Athenian citizenship to children both of
whose parents were Athenians (Demand 212). This may seem like an unfair measure, but it
had the effect of making citizenship a privilege and thus encouraging civic
responsibility.
Throughout the 440's and 430's Pericles was elected year after year to the Board of 10
generals. He was able to persuade the Assembly to support his policies of democracy at
home and imperialism abroad. Along with his own personal ambition and his patriotic
desire to Athens, Pericles also had lofty ideals for uplifting his fellow citizens
culturally. He spent public money to beatify Athens. These public works gave employment
to the citizens and the result was the embellishment of the Acropolis with the great
buildings, which have made it famous ever since (Kagan 67). Yet, strangely enough and not
unlike other great democrats in history, Pericles did not mix with common citizens in his
personal life, which remained private and simple.
Pericles' reforms were highly cost demanding. He was the leader who helped Athens
development into a democracy and at the same time he was also the person who transformed
Athens into a greedy imperialist state. In the long run the imperialism led to the
downfall of both Athens and democracy. In order to lull the citizens at home he satisfied
its demands by outward expressions of force. It was during his time that the once
voluntary allies of Athens learnt that they were no longer partners of equal standing
with Athens but rather colonies that were exploited. Pericles arbitrarily doubled their
of tribute; anyone who was insubordinate was being punished (Kagan 70). The most glorious
years of Athenian democracy were thus directly linked to unjust foreign exploitation, a
development that accelerated after Pericles' death. This factor lead at length to revolt
among the allied states and weakening the position of Athens. During the Peloponnesian
War, which was embarked on by Pericles, the democratic forces in Athens were engaged in a
constant struggle for their livelihood of their ideals. Those who were for democratic
ideals knew that a victory for Sparta that was idealized by the intellectuals against
democracy would at the same time mean an end to their own popular power. Another reason
the democracy fell in Athens was the rich never understood the complaints of the poor.
The poor afford to adopt the prudence of the rich. Athens remained, despite its
democracy, a class society.
Athens developed a democracy with the reforms of Cleisthenes and Pericles. The democracy
of Athens worked well until imperialism became a major focus as a way to gain money. How
democratic was the Athenian government? It was democratic in the sense that participation
by the people was mandatory in order to run the government. But the participation of the
people excluded women and slaves. Later under Pericles this came to include men who were
not born to parents who were natives of Athens. The democracy in Athens gave a stepping
stone to what is seen today as democracy.
Bibliography
Demand, Nancy. A History of Ancient Greece. McGraw Hill: 
New York. 1996.
Herodotus. The Histories. Trans. Aubrey De Selincourt
revised. Penguin Books: New York. 1996.
Kagan, Donald. Pericles of Athens and the Birth of 
Democracy. The Free Press: New York. 1991. 
Ober, Josiah. The Athenian Revolution: Essays on Ancient
Greek Democracy and Political Theory. Princeton 
University Press: New Jersey. 1996.