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Greeks and Victorians: a Re-Examination of Engels' Theory of the Athenian Polis

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Greeks and Victorians: a Re-Examination of Engels' Theory of the Athenian Polis Greeks and Victorians: A Re-Examination of Engels' Theory of the Athenian Polis Richard B. Lee University of Toronto There is a paradox in Engels' well-known theory of L'analyse propose quelques observations de la dynamique state formation contained in The Origin of the Family interne des états primitifs et du rôle des relations de Private Property and the State. The state in Engels' view parenté et timoigne a la fin de la validité fondamentale represented a triumph of a small elite of non-producers de la vue d'Engels. over the vast majority, and a world-historical defeat for the common people. Yet the Athenian state, Engels' prime example, does not conform to the pattern: it becomes more "democratic" as the state evolves rather than less. The paper explores the way out of this . ~The origin of the state has been one of the three dilemma, through an examination of the rise of the key disjunctures that has characterized the evolu- Athenian polis in light of the recent theory of the Early tion of human society, the origin of agriculture and State put forward by Henri Claessen and Peter Skalnik. the rise of capitalism constituting the other two. On The analysis offers insight into the internal dynamic of the question of the origin of the state much ink has early states and the role of kinship, and in the final been spilt and a plethora of theories have sprung section argues for the essential validity of Engels' up. Because the actual origins of states often view. occurred before the full development of writing systems, the details were always hazy and often Il y a un paradoxe dans la thdorie célébre d'Engels legendary. Archeological research has added great- portant sur la formationz de l'état qu'on trouve dans ly to our knowledge of state origins, but consider- Origine de la famille, de la propri6t6 priv6e et de l'6tat. able gaps remain. An aura of speculation and L,'érat représentait, d'aprés Engels le triomphe d'une blite mystery still surrounds the question of the origin of peu nombreuse sur la grande majorité de la population et the state, and perhaps always shall. une d~Ifaite historique a l'échelle mondiale de la part du In recent years a dif~ferent approach to the peuple. Pourtant, I'état athénien, I'exemple fondamental by Dutch and other présentépar Engels, ne se conforme pas au modéle: au fur problem has been pioneered et i&mesure que l'état évolue, il devient plus et non moins, European scholars. Recognizing the dif~ficulties of <<dimocratique>>. Mon drude explor·e la possibilité de knowing state origins per se, they have shifted to risoudre ce dilemme au moyen d'un examen de l'essor du focus on the early state as an analytical concept polis athénien à la lumiére de la théorie récente de l'état (Claessen and Skalnik, 1978). But instead of primitif présenté par Henri Claessen et Peter Skalnik. including under this rubric all pre-capitalist state CULTURE V (1), 1985 63 societies, Claessen and Skalnik make a sharp dis- have at least the opportunity to understand some of tinction between the early state and the matulre the social forces at work in far greater depth than is state. In the former, kinship, tribal political forms, true for the origins of the state. and tribal religion still dominate the social life of This methodological advantage was not lost on the polity, while in the latter civil, non-kin-based the social evolutionist scholars of the last century, institutions predominate. Thus the early state such as Morgan, Maine, and Engels, who used the model replaces the pre-state/state dichotomy with written sources from classical antiquity as the a trichotomy-pre-state/early state/mature state. major documentation for their theories of the Claessen, Skalnik, and their co-workers have formation of the state. In fact, a closer examina- been active in putting forward this revised view of tion of these Victorian theorists reveals that their the formation of the state. In their two books, The version of the origin of the state corresponded to Early State (1978) and The Study of the State what we would now call, following Claessen, the (1981), they have assembled case materials from all transition from the early to the mature state. This over the world and theoretical perspectives from conflation is certainly true of Engels' and Morgan's Europe, North America, the Third World and the treatment of the rise of the Athenian polis (Engels, socialist bloc. A third volume on the early state is in 1972 [1884]; Morgan, 1963 [1877]). The pivotal the press (Claessen, Smith and Van der Velde), and events of "state formation" in Engels' classic a fourth volume is to come out of a conference held account occurred in the 6th and 5th centuries B.C., in August 1983 in conjunction with the Intern- at least two centuries after the actual formation of ational Congress in Quebec.' the Athenian city-state in the 8th and 7th centuries The concept of the early state appears simple, (and two millenia after the first state societies but it is deceptively so. In fact, it of~fers us a appeared in the Near East). powerful tool for the analysis of the development of For Engels the development of the state went state societies. First, the early state concept is hand in hand with the destruction of the gentile inherently dialectical. Much, if not most, previous constitution, that is, the supercession of kin-based writing on the state treats its origin as an event. jural institutions by the civil institutions of the city The early state concept treats it as a process. As government (Engels, 1972: 171-181). This pivotal Claessen and Skalnik argue, transformation is built into Claessen and Skalnik's The fact that many scholars have considerable difficulty typology of early states (1978: 22-23, 589, 633-34, in drawing the dividing-line between the state and the 639-42). They distinguish three types: the inchoate, non-state is the result of their failure to understand that the typical, and the transitionalearly states; each is the transformation was not an abrupt mechanical one, defined in terms of the relative political weight of but, on the contrary, was an extremely lengthy process. A kin-based and non-kin-based institutions. process characterized by the development of a distinct The inchoate early state is found where kinship, family, socio/political organization which we propose to call the and community ties still dominate relations in the EARL(978:21)political STAE. field; where full-time specialists are rare; where taxation systems are only primitive and ad hoc taxes are Second, treating the early state as a process frequent; and where social differences are offset by rather than an event turns our attention towards reciprocity and close contact between the rulers and the the internal logic of its development. As Claessen ruled, and Skalnik argue: The typical early state exists where kinship ties are counterbalanced by territorial ones; where competition To reach the early state level is one thing, to develop into and appointment to office counterbalance the principle of a full-blown, or mature state is quite another. An often heredity of office; where non-kmn officials and title- process separates these long and complex evolutionary holders begin to play a leading role in government ad- two stages. Hence in the various societies that can be . ministration; and where ties of redistribution and reci- classified as early states, the degree of complexity, the social strata. extent of the territory, the size of the population, and the procity still dominate relations between the The transitional early state is found where the degree of power of the central government may differ consderaly.22)administrative 1978 apparatus is dominated by appointed officials; where kinship influences are only marginal aspects of government; and where the prerequisites for Third, because the state's development unfolds the emergence of private property in the means of over a very long time, the origin of the state is only production, for a market economy and for the develop- the starting point of analysis. Although the actual ment of overtly antagonistic classes exist. This type origins of states may be clouded in mystery, the already incorporates the prerequisites for the develop- transition from early state to mature state often ment of the mature state. (Claessen and Skalnik, 1978: goes on in the full light of written history. Thus, we 23) 64 /R.B. Lee The early state can thus be regarded as an and Leacock (1980), Flannery (1972), Carneiro intermediate form of considerable time depth in (1970) and many others have confirmed the general which the organs of pre-state society still exert a sequence. The problem arises when we look at the powerful influence. The early state adapts kin- substance of the changes that actually occurred in based institutions, tribal political forms and tribal the Athenian state during the period 600-400 B.C. religions to new and expanded purposes. Only after Here, we are faced with apparent anomalies. For a period of evolution are the new organs of state example, the major reforms of Solon and Cleis- power able to supercede and dispense with the pre- thenes that crystallized the constitutional form of existing kin-based order.2 Athens and destroyed the gens were democratic rather than despotic in character. They expanded civil rights, rather than limiting them, and in- The purpose of this paper, then, is to apply the creased equality rather than decreasing it for the perspective of the Early State to the rise of the citizenry.
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