It is often said that ancient Athens was one of the first democratic systems in the world. I have recently been reading The Classical Athenian Democracy by David Stockton to find out a bit about their system – which lasted from the 590s BC (the time of Solon) to the 320s BC (conquest by Macedonia) with some interruptions.
Firstly, it is important to bear in mind that, in some ways, we would not see Athens as a democratic state. It excluded women from citizenship rights, it had slavery and it denied the large number of resident non-citizens (metics) political rights.
Only adult male citizens had political rights. The number of them varied and they amounted to, perhaps, 25,000 to 60,000 over the course of the period of the democracy. The population of Athens and its surrounding areas was perhaps 5 to 10 times greater – given the large number of women, slaves and non-citizens. The citizenship criteria became stricter after the restoration of democracy in 403 BC and, to be a citizen, you had to have both a citizen father and a citizen mother [not just a citizen father as had been the case previously].
The key aspect of Athenian democracy was not elections – as it is in modern democratic systems – but sortition. Sortition is selection by lot. This was considered a better system than election to fill most posts by the Athenians. They feared that election would result in the rich and famous getting elected rather than allowing ordinary members of the demos to have a role in governing. There were relatively few posts that were elected, mainly those in the military and in financial administration which were considered to require specialist skills. Most other positions – and there were hundreds – were filled by lot.
To start at the local level, Stockton estimates that Athens and the surrounding areas were divided into 139 demes. These were the local governments of their districts. Power was held by the deme assembly which all adult male citizens of the deme could attend and the key government posts for the deme were generally filled by lot. Strangely, membership of a deme was not based on residence but on where your paternal ancestors had been resident when the deme register was drawn up. People might thus be eligible to vote and serve – not in the deme where they lived – but where their grandfather or great-grandfather had been registered.
Demes were grouped together into 10 ‘tribes’. These ‘tribes’ were crucial for the selection of the boule (the executive council).
The sovereign body in Athens was the Assembly. It was this body that adult male citizens could attend to vote on the key issues put before them. They could approve laws, make decrees, declare war and ostracise people. Payment was introduced to encourage the poorer citizens to attend later on in the democracy. The first 6000 to attend got paid, suggesting that this became the quorum. For some important decisions, like ostracism, 6000 people had to agree to ostracise a given person for that to take place.
The Assembly did not meet that frequently – perhaps 10 times a year in most years but more in years of crisis. Given the slow pace of travel in that era, it would have been difficult for people to travel to meetings in the city frequently.
When the Assembly wasn’t in session, power rested with the boule – which can be considered a kind of executive council. This council had 500 members – 50 from each of the 10 ‘tribes’ that had been defined by Cleisthenes. They were selected at random from all the individuals in the tribe.
The presidency of the boule rotated between the 10 tribes. And, each day, there was a different epitastes (who can be considered a kind of chairman). This post rotated each day between the members of the boule who were from the tribe that had the presidency at that time. So there was heavy reliance on sortition – the group (50) that led the Council of 500 was chosen on a rotation basis and the leader of the group of 50 was selected by lot. The convention was that the post of epitastes could only be held once a lifetime. This means that – assuming an adult lifetime of 30 years and 30,000 citizens – as many as a third of adult male citizens could have chaired the boule in a lifetime.
Politics and law are linked together. As such, a state that prided itself on popular involvement in government had popular involvement in the legal system as well. Juries were drawn from a pool of 6000 citizens aged over 30 (the age of majority was normally 20, however it was considered desirable that jurors be older). The size of juries varied between 201 and 501 depending on the case. These huge juries were preferred as it was felt that it was more difficult to bribe or corrupt them and it gave a chance for as many citizens as possible to participate in the judicial system. Many key political trials and impeachments took place. The court system was the way in which the holders of offices could be held to account for the way they exercised their powers.
To conclude, the Athenian democratic system was one that placed a premium on citizen involvement. They did not just give voters a chance to vote once in 4 or 5 years. Instead, voters had the right to attend assembly meetings on a fairly regular basis – and had a high chance of being selected to hold an office by lot. It is thus no surprise that, in Athens, the word idiotes (idiot) was used to describe those who took no interest in public affairs. To take an active interest and participate in public affairs was considered the key role of a citizen.
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