The political system of the ancient Athens city-state created the first democratic politics in human history and provided a historical prototype for the analysis and research of modern democratic politics. Studying democracy in Athens helps us to understand the meaning and content of democracy.
The formation of Athenian democracy
The formation and development of Athenian democracy has a process of emergence and development. The glory of laying the foundation of democracy in Athens belongs to Solon.
Before Solon, gentlemen and nobles were the rulers of Athens. During this period, the aristocratic meeting had supreme authority, and the appointment of "senior state officials" such as king consuls and military consuls was based on family status and wealth; And it was originally for life, but later it was changed to ten years. [2] The poor in Athens (the protected people and the "June 1st" Han) are not only powerless politically, but also threatened by slavery at any time, because the "June 1st" Han who can't afford the land rent wants to use his own body or children as collateral, while the debtor's loan should be secured by his own person. The hardships of Athenian civilians and their opposition to the repayment of the privileges of the old clan nobles caused fierce struggles between Athenian civilians (industrial and commercial slave owners, small farmers, craftsmen and the poor) and the old clan nobles.
The draconian code promulgated in 62 1 BC has shown that the civilian power in Athens has increased, but the descendants of nobles still enjoy exclusive rule over the country.
Athens, in the crisis of fierce struggle between city-state civilians and aristocratic descendants, urgently needs to establish a new order. In 594 BC, Solon, who was elected as the chief consul, undertook the important task of establishing this new order. Solon, who was born a commoner and became rich in business, tried to establish a system that could accommodate all parties. Its purpose is for civilians, "freedom cannot be excessive, and coercion cannot be excessive."
Solon issued a rescission order, which invalidated the debt and removed the debt tablet on the debtor's land; Solon announced that life insurance for debts would be banned forever and debt slavery was abolished. Solon confirmed the legality of private property, land division and sale, and stipulated the maximum amount of land occupation. All these declared the personal freedom of the Athenians and liberated the poor in Athens.
At the same time, Solon carried out a series of political reforms. All Attica citizens are divided into four grades according to their legal property qualifications (based on real estate income); Rich peasants, knights, middle peasants and poor peasants. The annual land income of the first three grades is 500,300 and 200 Medina respectively (each Medina is about 465,438+0 liters). Those who have no land income or income below 200 Medina are poor. The citizens' assembly is the highest authority, and all adult Athenian citizens, including the poorest, have the right to participate. The citizens' assembly is responsible for legislating, deciding on war and peace, and electing the highest officials of the country. A new 400-member committee was set up to propose bills for the citizens' assembly and handle daily affairs.
Solon also founded the "jury court" as the judicial organ of Athens, and any citizen can appeal to the jury court.
Solon's reform means the failure of the aristocratic descendants who once enjoyed hereditary privileges, and marks the rise of the wealthy industrial and commercial slave class and the victory of this class with the free peasants, craftsmen and the poor in Athens. Despite the existence of property privileges, the poor in Athens can participate in the political life of the country and play an important role in defending their own interests in legislative and judicial activities. But the struggle is far from over, and Solon's absence from the founding of the country is not stable. After Solon left office, the plain faction composed of aristocratic descendants who opposed Solon's reform and the non-sea faction composed of businessmen and craftsmen who adhered to Solon's system were still struggling fiercely. At the same time, the mountain-dwelling faction formed by mountain farmers also participated in this struggle, demanding further reform and redistribution of land. Finally, the Athenian regime fell into the hands of Petrato. Although he was expelled twice, Petrato finally established a tyrant politics. This autocratic politics is obviously a reaction to the system founded by Solon. Therefore, although Petrato is "gentle in handling state affairs" and "kind and gentle in everything to lawbreakers, he lends money to the poor" [3], his regime cannot last long after all. The political history of the tyrant ended after 49 years.
In 509-508 BC, Cleisthenes further reformed Solon's legislation. According to the principle of region, all Attica residents are re-divided into ten tribes (three sub-regions), and each tribe occupies one district in the inland, coastal and suburban areas of Asia. This disrupted the old household registration and weakened the influence of aristocratic descendants in the old tribes and clans. The 500-member Council was re-established to replace Solon's 400-member Council, and citizens of the fourth grade also had the right and opportunity to participate in the Council.
Cleisthenes's reform made the aristocratic oligarchy lose its power. However, around the national political system, the struggle between Democrats and oligarchs has not ended. After the Persian War, when Perikles came to power, the authority of the aristocratic meeting was almost completely abolished. Therefore, democracy in Athens entered its heyday.
During this period, the citizens' assembly (ECC), as the highest organ of state power, was responsible for passing laws, solving problems such as war and peace, food supply in the city-state, listening to reports from consuls and other heads, examining and supervising state officials, examining and finally determining cases in jury courts, and deciding all other major affairs of the country. The general assembly is held about four times a month, and full freedom of speech is allowed in the general assembly.
Therefore, the Athenians established a form of government in which citizens were free and equal and sovereignty belonged to all citizens.
The reasons for the formation of democracy in Athens
Why did the ancient eastern civilized countries generally form a centralized autocratic system, while the Greek world in the Mediterranean produced a democratic model like Athens? People who think about this problem often pay attention to the special geographical environment of Athens first, and try to say that this is the decisive factor for the formation of democracy in Athens. But this is not convincing. Some Athens-like city-states belonging to the Greek world, such as Corinth and Megara, established oligarchy. It can be seen that the geographical environment is not directly related to the political system of human society. Undeniably, the formation and development of the democratic political system in Athens included the influence of geographical environment, but this influence was indirect, indirect and even less decisive. It should be said that the formation and development of democracy in Athens is the result of the comprehensive effect of its economic, political, historical and cultural traditions and other complex factors.
First of all, the ancient Athenian state had a fairly high social productivity when it was formed. This is one of the characteristics of Athens, which has been bordered by the ancient oriental civilization from the beginning. Homer's heroic epic shows that iron and Niu Geng have been used in the Greek region during the disintegration of primitive society. The formation period of ancient oriental civilization was much earlier than that of Huaidian, but the level of productivity development was much lower. In the ancient kingdom, Egypt mainly used wooden plows and wooden products for farming. It was not until King China's time that bronze tools appeared in Egypt. Iron is also considered as a precious metal, because it is rare in the new kingdom-about 1000 years have passed since the formation of Egypt's unified country. Marx once thought that this low-level civilization and vast territory were one of the reasons for the need for centralized autocratic government. However, the more developed social productive forces led to the existence of self-employed production activities in agriculture and handicrafts during the formation of Athens. On this basis, the necessity of intervention by centralized and autocratic government is ruled out.
Secondly, based on the geographical environment of Athens and the relatively developed social productive forces, the ancient Athenian countries had their own characteristics of social and economic activities during their formation.
In ancient Athens, located in Attica Peninsula, the mountains fluctuated, which was not conducive to the development of food production, but gardening, animal husbandry, fruit planting and beekeeping were quite prosperous. The deposits of silver and clay in Attica are beneficial to the development of handicraft industry. The Aegean Sea on the third ring Attica Peninsula is connected with the Mediterranean Sea, and several natural harbors on the west bank of Attica provide Athenians with convenient conditions for developing maritime trade. Dependence on foreign grain and the need to export handicraft products and clothing products have enabled Attica residents to continuously expand their foreign exchanges and establish close economic relations with overseas countries. Cultural connection. In this way, at the beginning of the formation of Athens, Attica society had a relatively developed commodity-currency relationship, which largely broke through the situation of natural economy. At this time, Athens has become the economic, trade and cultural center of the eastern Mediterranean. In Solon's era, "movable property, that is, wealth composed of money, slaves and merchant ships, is increasing day by day, but at this time it is no longer just a means to buy real estate as it was in the initial narrow vision period-it has become a gap in itself." [4] On the contrary, ancient eastern civilized countries were generally based on self-sufficient rural economy. As Marx pointed out: 1 There are two situations in India: on the one hand, the Indian people, like people in all eastern countries, have left their major conditions for agriculture and commerce, that is, large-scale public works, to the government; On the other hand, due to the family combination of agriculture and handicrafts, they are scattered all over the country and live in small places. Because of these two situations, India has produced a special social system since ancient times, that is, the so-called village community system, which makes every such small unit become an independent organization and lead a life behind closed doors. "[5]" No matter how harmless these rural communes seem at first glance, they have always been a solid foundation of the oriental autocratic system "[6].