Uncovering the Roots of Democracy An Exploration of the Political Institutions of Athenian Democracy

This video presents the structure of the Athenian democracy. You will learn the definition of citizenship in ancient Athens and the basic characteristics of the political institutions. The analysis of this unique model of political organization is based on the constitution of the Athenians, an ancient text which was created by the school of Aristotle. That work provided us with a detailed rundown of the structure of Athens government. Athenian citizens. The word democracy derives from the Greek words demos, which means people, and kratos, which means power. Therefore, democracy means the power of the people. The beating heart of Athenian democracy was the Athenian citizens. Only they, had political rights, could hold a public office, vote, and participate in the political institutions. But who were they? During the golden age of Pericles, the population of Attica was more than 300,000 people including the Athenians, the medics who were the foreign residents, and the slaves who were the workforce and the lowest class of the Athenian society. The Athenians were the men and women from Athens. To be an Athenian citizen, you needed three qualifications. Both your parents had to be from Athens, to be at least 20 years old and of course, to be a male. In the 5th century BC, when the Athenian democracy was at its peak, the citizens of the city were between 30,000 to 60,000 people. Popular assembly. The popular assembly was the central political institution of the state directly connected with the Athenian citizens. The assembly's members were not elected but attended by right when they choose. Here, the Athenian citizens were gathering to address issues of importance like laws, treaties, decrees, or deciding to go to war. In a session of the assembly, the speakers would make speeches for or against a position. Then the voting process was taking place usually by show of hands. In some cases, the voting process used white and black stones, white for yes and black for no. Each voter tossed one of these into a large clay jar which was afterwards cracked open for the counting of the ballots. The popular assembly decided also on the ostracism of a citizen. Ostracism was a political practice whereby an Athenian citizen could be banished from the city for 10 years. Any Athenian citizen could write another citizen's name on a piece of pottery called ostracon and when a sufficiently large number of them wrote the same name, the ostracized man had 10 days to leave Attica. From excavations in the Acropolis, archaeologists have found ostracons with the names of important and famous Athenians like Pericles, the famous statesman, Cimon, the general and military genius who was also the son of Miltiades who led the Athenians in the battle of Marathon and Aristides, the general who established the Delian League. According to Aristotle, this practice was introduced by Clisthenes, an Athenian legislator who is considered by many historians that he laid the foundations of the Athenian democracy. Popular Tribunal of Heliaea. The popular tribunal of Heliaea was a court responsible to examine the legality of the decrees and treaties and to inspect the decisions of the city. It consisted of 6,000 Athenian citizens elected annually by lot called heliasts. Each member of Heliaea could denounce anything considered harmful to the city. The heliasts were the legislators who voted on laws and the juries. The jurors had to take an oath when attending a trial and their number on a trial depended on the type of lawsuit. Private lawsuits were heard by 201 or 401 jurors depending on the amount of money at stake, while public prosecutions were heard by juries of 501 or more. Decisions were made by voting without any time set aside for deliberation. Payment for jurors was introduced most likely by periples, a feature described by Aristotle as fundamental to radical democracy. Lords. The lords were initially three powerful officeholders from noble families who governed the city. The reforms of Cleisthenes increased the lords from three to nine and removed their influence over the Athenian state. They were elected by lot by the popular assembly for one year. They presided over the popular tribunal of Heliaea in family affairs and organized the city's celebrations. By the time of Pericles, they were set aside as an office and had only ritual duties. Council of Areopagus. The council of Areopagus was the criminal court of the city and settled the homicides. The board of the council consisted of 150 lifelong members. These members were called Areopagetus and all were retired lords. In the early days of the Athenian state, the council of Areopagus had great power which held even after Cleisthenes reforms. However, by the time of Pericles, dramatically lost its power and was set aside. The name of the council comes from the rocky hill northwest of the Athenian Acropolis, the Areopagus hill. According to mythology at this hill god Ares was tried by the Olympian gods for the murder of one of Poseidon's sons. Council of 500. The council of 500 was an official body with an administrative and supervisory role. It was formed by 500 Athenian citizens elected by Lot called Volophtes, 50 from each of the 10 tribes of Attica. The 500 representatives served annually. 50 of them were called Prytanes and were the executives of the council. 9 served as chairman during the sessions and were elected by the 450 non-Prytanes. The Epistats, elected by Lot from the Prytanes, were responsible for the official documents of the city. 10 members formed the committee where any Athenian citizen could submit a decree or a law proposal. The main responsibility of the council was to draft the deliberations and the resolutions that were going to be voted by the popular assembly. The council collaborated, guided and supervised all public officials and met daily in the Athenian magistracies. In the Athenian democracy were two general categories of magistracies, the military and the civil. The military magistracies are elected by Lot by the popular assembly and they commanded the army. They were categorized into four military ranks. The 10 generals commanded the army and navy and took all the final decisions. Next to the hierarchy were the 10 taxiarchs who commanded the infantry, the 10 hipparchs who commanded the cavalry and the 10 phylarchs who commanded the cavalry of each tribe of the city in battle. The military magistracies also presided over the popular tribunal of Heliaea in military matters. The civil magistracies were elected by the citizens or the popular assembly by Lot or the rise of hands and among others were responsible for the treasury of the city. Criticism. The Athenians developed a form of government that helped their society function efficiently. Their government was based on each and every Athenian citizen and on principles and beliefs that have influenced our systems of democratic government today. However, democracy has had many critics in ancient times by personalities like Plato, Socrates and Aristotle. Their main concern was that the common people were not necessarily the right people to rule and were likely to make huge mistakes from lack of knowledge in matters crucial to the city. In our days, democracy is a very popular concept and is adopted by many countries of the world as the most suitable model of governance. George Grote, an English political and classical historian, argued in his work History of Greece that only by giving every citizen the vote would people ensure that the state would be run in the general interest. Historian Roflob claimed that democracy in ancient Athens was a unique and truly revolutionary system and Mark Cartwright, a history writer from Italy, characterized democracy as the greatest and most enduring legacy of ancient Greece. What do you think? If you want to extend your research, have a look to the description of the video for more links and sources. Did you like this video? Give us a thumbs up and subscribe to support our channel.