Direct and Economic Democracy in Ancient Athens and Its Significance Today
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Who Freed Athens? J
Ancient Greek Democracy: Readings and Sources Edited by Eric W. Robinson Copyright © 2004 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd The Beginnings of the Athenian Democracv: Who Freed Athens? J Introduction Though the very earliest democracies lildy took shape elsewhere in Greece, Athens embraced it relatively early and would ultimately become the most famous and powerful democracy the ancient world ever hew. Democracy is usually thought to have taken hold among the Athenians with the constitutional reforms of Cleisthenes, ca. 508/7 BC. The tyrant Peisistratus and later his sons had ruled Athens for decades before they were overthrown; Cleisthenes, rallying the people to his cause, made sweeping changes. These included the creation of a representative council (bode)chosen from among the citizens, new public organizations that more closely tied citizens throughout Attica to the Athenian state, and the populist ostracism law that enabled citizens to exile danger- ous or undesirable politicians by vote. Beginning with these measures, and for the next two centuries or so with only the briefest of interruptions, democracy held sway at Athens. Such is the most common interpretation. But there is, in fact, much room for disagree- ment about when and how democracy came to Athens. Ancient authors sometimes refer to Solon, a lawgiver and mediator of the early sixth century, as the founder of the Athenian constitution. It was also a popular belief among the Athenians that two famous “tyrant-slayers,” Harmodius and Aristogeiton, inaugurated Athenian freedom by assas- sinating one of the sons of Peisistratus a few years before Cleisthenes’ reforms - though ancient writers take pains to point out that only the military intervention of Sparta truly ended the tyranny. -
Law, Liberty and the Rule of Law (In a Constitutional Democracy)
Georgetown University Law Center Scholarship @ GEORGETOWN LAW 2013 Law, Liberty and the Rule of Law (in a Constitutional Democracy) Imer Flores Georgetown Law Center, [email protected] Georgetown Public Law and Legal Theory Research Paper No. 12-161 This paper can be downloaded free of charge from: https://scholarship.law.georgetown.edu/facpub/1115 http://ssrn.com/abstract=2156455 Imer Flores, Law, Liberty and the Rule of Law (in a Constitutional Democracy), in LAW, LIBERTY, AND THE RULE OF LAW 77-101 (Imer B. Flores & Kenneth E. Himma eds., Springer Netherlands 2013) This open-access article is brought to you by the Georgetown Law Library. Posted with permission of the author. Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.law.georgetown.edu/facpub Part of the Constitutional Law Commons, Jurisprudence Commons, Legislation Commons, and the Rule of Law Commons Chapter6 Law, Liberty and the Rule of Law (in a Constitutional Democracy) lmer B. Flores Tse-Kung asked, saying "Is there one word which may serve as a rule of practice for all one's life?" K'ung1u-tzu said: "Is not reciprocity (i.e. 'shu') such a word? What you do not want done to yourself, do not ckJ to others." Confucius (2002, XV, 23, 225-226). 6.1 Introduction Taking the "rule of law" seriously implies readdressing and reassessing the claims that relate it to law and liberty, in general, and to a constitutional democracy, in particular. My argument is five-fold and has an addendum which intends to bridge the gap between Eastern and Western civilizations, -
Deliberation in Ancient Greek Assemblies
DELIBERATION IN ANCIENT GREEK ASSEMBLIES Daniela Cammack Yale University Classical Philology, forthcoming When an ancient Greek dēmos (“people,” “assembly”) deliberated, what did it do?1 On one view, it engaged in a form of public conversation along the lines theorized by contemporary deliberative democrats; on another, a small number of active citizens debated before a much larger, more passive audience. Both accounts represent deliberation as an external, speech-centered activity rather than an internal, thought-centered one. The democratic ideal, it is suggested, was at least occasional participation in public speech. This article questions that interpretation. A study of βουλεύομαι, “deliberate,” and related terms from Homer to Aristotle reveals three models of deliberation: internal, dialogical, and another that I shall call “audience,” in which a deliberating audience came to a decision after hearing advice. Assembly deliberation was almost always represented as audience deliberation. The dēmos, or listening mass, deliberated (ἐβουλεύετο), that is came to a decision about an action in its power, while those who spoke before it advised (συνεβούλευσε). Citizens did not fall short of a democratic ideal when they did not speak publicly. To the contrary, the dēmos was expected to exercise its authority through internal reflection, culminating in a vote. This argument has profound implications for our conceptualization of ancient Greek democracy and its differences from its modern counterpart. A common criticism of modern representative democracy is that ordinary citizens play too small a part in it, their role typically being limited to voting in periodic elections. Ancient Greek democracy has been represented as more inclusive at least in part because ordinary citizens shaped policy through public speech. -
Social Studies Grade 7 Week of 4-6-20 1. Log Onto Clever with Your
Social Studies Grade 7 Week of 4-6-20 1. Log onto Clever with your BPS username and password. 2. Log into Newsela 3. Copy and paste this link into your browser: https://newsela.com/subject/other/2000220316 4. Complete the readings and assignments listed. If you can’t access the articles through Newsela, they are saved as PDFs under the Grade 7 Social Studies folder on the BPSMA Learning Resources Site. They are: • Democracy: A New Idea in Ancient Greece • Ancient Greece: Democracy is Born • Green Influence on U.S. Demoracy Complete the following: Directions: Read the three articles in the text set. Remember, you can change the reading level to what is most comfortable for you. While reading, use the following protocols: Handling changes in your life is an important skill to gain, especially during these times. Use the following supports to help get the most out of these texts. Highlight in PINK any words in the text you do not understand. Highlight in BLUE anything that you have a question about. Write an annotation to ask your question. (You can highlight right in the article. Click on the word or text with your mouse. Once you let go of the mouse, the highlight/annotation box will appear on your right. You can choose the color of the highlight and write a note or question in the annotation box). Pre-Reading Activity: KWL: Complete the KWL Chart to keep your information organized. You may use the one below or create your own on a piece of paper. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1OUDVcJA6hjcteIhpA0f5ssvk28WNBhlK/view Post-Reading Activity: After reading the articles, complete a Venn diagram to compare and contrast the democracy of Ancient Greece and the United States. -
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ARISTOTLE AND DEMOCRACY A PhD Thesis submitted by Charalambos Ioannou Papageorgiou k k k k University College University of London LONDON 1991 ** ProQuest Number: 10609803 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a com plete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. uest ProQuest 10609803 Published by ProQuest LLC(2017). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States C ode Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106- 1346 2 ABSTRACT The thesis undertakes a reconstruction and critical assessment of Aristotle's theory of democracy. The process of reconstruction requires at first the collection and organisation of the relevant material, since Aristotle's references to democracy, although numerous, are scattered throughout his political and ethical writings. A chapter is devoted to this task. This chapter also seeks to describe the historical and intellectual context in which Aristotle developed his ideas on democracy. The thesis then attempts to identify the fundamental principles which underlie Aristotle's conception of democracy. These are examined both in their relation to one another and also in their relation to the fundamental principles of Aristotle's political philosophy in general. Aristotle's teleological conception of the state and his theory of distributive justice based on proportionate equality are singled out as the salient principles which shape his conception, classification and criticism of democracy. -
Rethinking Athenian Democracy.Pdf
Rethinking Athenian Democracy A dissertation presented by Daniela Louise Cammack to The Department of Government in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the subject of Political Science Harvard University Cambridge, Massachusetts January 2013 © 2013 Daniela Cammack All rights reserved. Professor Richard Tuck Daniela Cammack Abstract Conventional accounts of classical Athenian democracy represent the assembly as the primary democratic institution in the Athenian political system. This looks reasonable in the light of modern democracy, which has typically developed through the democratization of legislative assemblies. Yet it conflicts with the evidence at our disposal. Our ancient sources suggest that the most significant and distinctively democratic institution in Athens was the courts, where decisions were made by large panels of randomly selected ordinary citizens with no possibility of appeal. This dissertation reinterprets Athenian democracy as “dikastic democracy” (from the Greek dikastēs, “judge”), defined as a mode of government in which ordinary citizens rule principally through their control of the administration of justice. It begins by casting doubt on two major planks in the modern interpretation of Athenian democracy: first, that it rested on a conception of the “wisdom of the multitude” akin to that advanced by epistemic democrats today, and second that it was “deliberative,” meaning that mass discussion of political matters played a defining role. The first plank rests largely on an argument made by Aristotle in support of mass political participation, which I show has been comprehensively misunderstood. The second rests on the interpretation of the verb “bouleuomai” as indicating speech, but I suggest that it meant internal reflection in both the courts and the assembly. -
Weak Rule of Law As the Primary Cause of Lower-Quality Latin American Democracies
ABSTRACT Weak Rule of Law as the Primary Cause of Lower-Quality Latin American Democracies Dacie A. Bradley Director: Victor Hinojosa, Ph.D. Drawing on a deep tradition of rule of law literature, spanning from Aristotle to O’Donnell, this thesis argues that the main problem in modern Latin America is a weak rule of law evidenced by ineffective judicial systems unable to sustain vertical and horizontal accountability. A broad analysis of the necessary characteristics and conditions for democratic rule of law leads to mid-range theory on the application of these characteristics in combination with the unique challenges facing modern day Latin America. A case study of Peru examining crime rates and court systems supports gives evidence to the paramount importance of rule of law and its lack thereof within the state and the region as a whole. This lack of strong rule of law gives rise to a host of other current issues and undermines democratic institutions lowering the quality of democracy. APPROVED BY DIRECTOR OF HONORS THESIS: ______________________________________________________ Dr. Victor Hinojosa, Thesis Director, Department of Political Science APPROVED BY THE HONORS PROGRAM: __________________________________________________________________ Dr. Elizabeth Corey, Director DATE: _____________ WEAK RULE OF LAW AS THE PRIMARY CAUSE OF LOWER-QUALITY, LATIN AMERICAN DEMOCRACIES A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of Baylor University In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Honors Program By Dacie A. Bradley Waco, Texas August 2020 TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter One: Rule of Law Tradition……………………………………………………...1 Chapter Two: Democratic Rule of Law in Modern Latin America……………………...23 Chapter Three: Crime and the Court Systems of Peru: A Case Study…………………..46 Chapter Four: Concluding Remarks on the Strength of Peruvian Rule of Law…………68 Bibliography……………………………………………………………………………..76 ii CHAPTER ONE: Rule of Law Tradition Latin America has been undergoing a process of democratization for the past thirty years resulting in a plethora of very different outcomes. -
Philosophy & Social Criticism
Philosophy & Social Criticism http://psc.sagepub.com/ Apathy: the democratic disease Jeffrey E. Green Philosophy Social Criticism 2004 30: 745 DOI: 10.1177/0191453704045763 The online version of this article can be found at: http://psc.sagepub.com/content/30/5-6/745 Published by: http://www.sagepublications.com Additional services and information for Philosophy & Social Criticism can be found at: Email Alerts: http://psc.sagepub.com/cgi/alerts Subscriptions: http://psc.sagepub.com/subscriptions Reprints: http://www.sagepub.com/journalsReprints.nav Permissions: http://www.sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav >> Version of Record - Dec 6, 2004 What is This? Downloaded from psc.sagepub.com at UNIV OF PENNSYLVANIA on May 6, 2013 12 045763 (to/d) 2/9/04 11:38 am Page 745 Jeffrey E. Green Apathy: the democratic disease Abstract This essay turns to ancient sources in order to rethink the relation- ship between political apathy and democracy. If modern democratic theorists place political apathy entirely outside of democracy – either as a destructive limit upon the full realization of a democratic polity, or, more sanguinely, as a pragmatic necessity which tempers democracy so that it may function in a workable yet watered-down form – the ancients conceived of political apathy as a peculiarly democratic phenomenon that was likely to flourish in tandem with the expansion of egalitarian institutional structures and moral ideas. Evidence for the ancient recognition of political apathy as a uniquely demo- cratic kind of affliction centers on, but is not limited to, three main sources. In literature, the Homeric epic, and specifically the story of Achilles, present apathy for politics and commitment to human equality as synonymous forces. -
How Ancient Greece and Rome Provide Insight for Citizenship and Immigration in the 21St Century
Xavier University Exhibit Honors Bachelor of Arts Undergraduate 2019-4 Comparing Ancient to Modern: How Ancient Greece and Rome Provide Insight for Citizenship and Immigration in the 21st Century Viktoria Schumacher Follow this and additional works at: https://www.exhibit.xavier.edu/hab Part of the Ancient History, Greek and Roman through Late Antiquity Commons, Ancient Philosophy Commons, Classical Archaeology and Art History Commons, Classical Literature and Philology Commons, and the Other Classics Commons Comparing Ancient to Modern: How Ancient Greece and Rome Provide Insight for Citizenship and Immigration in the 21st Century Viktoria Schumacher CPHAB Senior Thesis Xavier University 2019 Director: Thomas Strunk Readers: Jay Arns and Tim Severyn 1 Introduction Migration plays an extremely vital role in the advancement of human societies. Despite our world’s staggering history with immigration, the conversation about how to manage current issues has fallen flat. Patterns of immigration have demonstrated that the number of migrants, especially refugees, has peaked in the 21st century, and numbers are still raising steadily.1 The increase is caused by an abundance of factors, including major events such as the Syrian refugee crisis, harmful or unfavorable political climates, and ongoing gang violence in Mexico and Central America. These issues have gone largely unsolved, causing immense suffering resulting in millions of people to migrate out of their home countries. Movement away from home due to tumultuous times is not a new concept. In fact, migration history demonstrates that major movement of people is a characteristic of our world. I posit that looking at migration in our past as well as examining its effects on different societies will offer a perspective that has otherwise been ignored. -
Herodotus and the Origins of Political Philosophy the Beginnings of Western Thought from the Viewpoint of Its Impending End
Herodotus and the Origins of Political Philosophy The Beginnings of Western Thought from the Viewpoint of its Impending End A doctoral thesis by O. H. Linderborg Dissertation presented at Uppsala University to be publicly examined in Engelska Parken, 7-0042, Thunbergsvägen 3H, Uppsala, Monday, 3 September 2018 at 14:00 for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. The examination will be conducted in English. Faculty examiner: Docent Elton Barker (Open University). Abstract Linderborg, O. H. 2018. Herodotus and the Origins of Political Philosophy. The Beginnings of Western Thought from the Viewpoint of its Impending End. 224 pp. Uppsala: Department of Linguistics and Philology, Uppsala University. ISBN 978-91-506-2703-9. This investigation proposes a historical theory of the origins of political philosophy. It is assumed that political philosophy was made possible by a new form of political thinking commencing with the inauguration of the first direct democracies in Ancient Greece. The pristine turn from elite rule to rule of the people – or to δημοκρατία, a term coined after the event – brought with it the first ever political theory, wherein fundamentally different societal orders, or different principles of societal rule, could be argumentatively compared. The inauguration of this alternative-envisioning “secular” political theory is equaled with the beginnings of classical political theory and explained as the outcome of the conjoining of a new form of constitutionalized political thought (cratistic thinking) and a new emphasis brought to the inner consistency of normative reasoning (‘internal critique’). The original form of political philosophy, Classical Political Philosophy, originated when a political thought launched, wherein non-divinely sanctioned visions of transcendence of the prevailing rule, as well as of the full range of alternatives disclosed by Classical Political Theory, first began to be envisioned. -
Herodotus' Constitutional Debate and the Spread of Isonomia
Herodotus’ Constitutional Debate and the Spread of Isonomia Herodotus’ depiction of the Constitutional Debate in Persia prior to the ascension of Darius in Book 3 (3.80-83) has been questioned by scholars both for its location of apparent fifth-century Greek political language in sixth-century Persia and for its seeming lack of connection to the surrounding narrative, as radical political concepts such as isonomia are strikingly introduced only to be immediately obscured by the resumption of the Persian monarchy (e.g. Connor 1971; Pelling 2002). By examining subsequent passages in which Herodotus discusses isonomia, my paper shows that the introduction of this concept in the Constitutional Debate forms an integral part of Herodotus’ narrative, as isonomia spreads from the Persian court to Greek Ionia. The term isonomia occurs four times in the text of Herodotus. While the first two (3.80.2 and 3.83.1) occur during the Constitutional Debate, Herodotus next uses the term during the insurrection on Samos when Maeandrius proposes to relinquish his power, absolve the tyranny, and establish isonomia (3.142.2-3). As previous scholars have noted (Immerwahr 1957; Raaflaub 2004), the language attributed to Maeandrius during this episode recalls the speech of Otanes in the Constitutional Debate. But the significance of this apparent allusion to Otanes’ speech and the role of isonomia here has not been fully explored. Herodotus’ inclusion of Darius’ decision to send the same Otanes to Samos to deal with the insurrection further emphasizes the connection between the two passages. The surprising appearance of Otanes creates the impression that isonomia has spread from Persia to Samos along with him. -
The Evolution of Rule of Law in Hayek's Thought, 1935–1955
No. 10-38 July 2010 WORKING PAPER THE EVOLUTION OF RULE OF LAW IN HAYEK’S THOUGHT, 1935–1955 By Steven D. Ealy The ideas presented in this research are the author’s and do not represent official positions of the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. THE EVOLUTION OF RULE OF LAW IN HAYEK‘S THOUGHT, 1935-1955: FROM COLLECTIVIST ECONOMIC PLANNING TO THE POLITICAL IDEAL OF THE RULE OF LAW Steven D. Ealy Senior Fellow, Liberty Fund, Inc. Abstract: Friedrich Hayek‘s interest in the ideal of rule of law as the centerpiece of a free society grew out of his analysis of the nature of centralized economic planning. This paper traces the development of rule of law in Hayek‘s thought from his early studies on economic planning through his political analysis of economics and political life as contained in The Road to Serfdom to his lectures on ―The Political Ideal of the Rule of Law‖ delivered in Cairo in 1955. These lectures became the core of The Constitution of Liberty, in which Hayek integrates his concern with rule of law with basic philosophical principles, on the one hand, and an analysis of approaches to public policy on the other. Dr. Steven D. Ealy (M.A., Government, Claremont Graduate University and Ph.D., Political Science, University of Georgia) is a senior fellow at Liberty Fund. Before joining Liberty Fund in 1993, he was professor of government at Armstrong State College (now Armstrong Atlantic State University) in Savannah, Georgia (1981–1993), and assistant professor of political science at Western Carolina University (1979–1981).