That is, the slave owners' democratic political system in ancient Greece and Athens. Its formation is the product of the disintegration of primitive society and the formation of slavery system, the struggle between clan nobles and civilians and the development of slavery economy. As early as the end of the 7th century BC, the contradiction between aristocrats and civilians in Athens had developed to a very acute degree. In 594 BC, Solon, the arbitrator elected by both sides, reformed, abolished debt slavery, improved the power of the citizens' assembly, adjusted the interests of different classes in the citizens' collective, and laid the foundation of Athenian democracy. The tyrannical rule of peisistratus (about the end of 7th century BC-527 BC) and his descendants (560 BC-5 BC10, with two interruptions) objectively attacked the gentry and nobles, improved the economic status of small farmers as citizens, and promoted the economic and cultural development of Athens. In 509 BC, Christian reformed to replace blood organizations with regional organizations as the administrative unit of the country, which weakened the influence of clan nobles in all aspects and promoted the development of democracy in Athens. The victory of Persian War greatly promoted the development of slave ownership economy in Athens, caused the change of power contrast among different classes of Athenian citizens, and led to the reform of Ephialtes in 462 BC (or 44 BC1year) and Pericles in 443 BC. These reforms deprived the aristocratic parliament composed of imperial consuls of power, and handed over the power to the citizens' assembly, the people's court and the 500-member parliament respectively, thus bringing the development of democratic politics to a new level. The military colonial system, various social welfare donations, subsidies to citizens and large-scale construction have enabled small producers, who account for the majority of citizens, to enjoy a certain guaranteed material and spiritual life. During the reign of Pericles (443 BC-429 BC), Athens reached its peak in economy, politics and culture, and became a hegemonic country and the main cultural center to control the situation in the Greek world.
The essence of Athenian regime;
1. The essence of the Athens regime is the democratic governance of the polis, that is, all citizens in the polis enjoy equal rights, exercise state administrative power and participate in state management.
2. Conditions for the formation of city-state democracy:
Democracy depends on slave economy, because only slave labor can provide necessary property and time for slave owners to participate in politics. Due to this condition, the original political power in Athens was monopolized by slave owners. The reason why they monopolize it is that they have property and leisure.
3. The formation process of Athenian democracy:
At first, the gentry monopolized the state power. Later, with the development of industry and commerce, a new class of industrial and commercial slave owners appeared in Athens.
At this stage, politics is limited to a few nobles.
The contradiction between clan nobles and industrial and commercial slave owners led to Solon's reform, which made the proletariat gain power day by day, and the old clan nobles were excluded.
Solon's reform made the majority of the proletariat dominate the political life of the country.
After Solon's reform, Pinchetto's autocracy was formed. After overthrowing Pinchetto's autocracy, Christie's reform strengthened the social foundation of democracy.
Kritis's reform has achieved a high degree of development, and all freemen can participate in politics. All official positions are open to citizens from all walks of life, and the Athenian people completely control everything in this country.
Second, the political structure of Athens:
1. Assembly:
The citizens' assembly is the highest authority in Athens, and its rights include: legislation, law enforcement, administration, military affairs, finance, justice, religious affairs, appointment and removal of senior public officials.
The general assembly is open to all male citizens over the age of 20 in Athens, so the power of the general assembly is not supervised. The citizens' assembly embodies the principle that sovereignty belongs to the people, and it is the highest form of public opinion in Athens.
2.500-member Committee:
The 500-member parliament enables the conference institutions attached to the citizens' assembly and the permanent institutions that carry out the will of the assembly to prepare bills for the assembly, preside over the assembly and preside over some daily senior administrative, supervisory and judicial functions after the assembly.
How can all Athenian citizens over the age of 30 be elected as members of the 500-member parliament without any property qualification restrictions, and can be re-elected once for a term of one year? This embodies the rule of equal opportunity, taking turns to govern and the obvious motivation to stop bureaucracy. This reflects the second characteristic of Athenian democracy: direct democracy. This not only embodies this feature, but also makes it impossible for Athens to produce expert politics. The political structure is basically the integration of deliberation and implementation.
3. People's courts:
The people's court is the daily judicial organ in Athens. Its function is relatively simple, mainly trying all public and private lawsuits except murder. It also examines whether a law or policy, including a resolution adopted by a general assembly, is unconstitutional. If it violates the Constitution, the people's court may announce the revocation of the law or resolution. In addition, the qualifications of senior and junior public officials must be examined and approved by the people's court.
In essence, the people's court pump is not only an extension of the judicial power of the citizens' assembly, but also a supervision and adjustment institution for the normal operation of the citizens' assembly. It embodies another feature of democratic governance in Athens: implementing the principle of "rule of law".
The judges of the Athens court are elected by all regions. Any citizen over the age of 30 can be elected to this position. The total number of jurors is 6,000, who are selected every year and assigned to various courts to exercise their functions and powers by drawing lots. They are also judges. Every court has a huge organization, usually more than 500 people. The court acts and makes judgments together with all citizens, and it directly represents the people like a citizens' assembly.
4. Administrative and military institutions:
Administrative and military institutions share the power to handle military, religious, industrial and commercial, municipal management and other specific affairs. Generally, there is no subordinate relationship between institutions, and the decision-making principle of collective leadership and minority obeying majority is implemented within institutions. All public officials in these institutions are elected from citizens over 30 years old, most of them by drawing lots and a few by raising their hands.
Thinking:
1/ Athens' political structure, through the arrangement and division of electoral system, post-event restriction system, decentralization system and limited responsibility system, makes Athens' state power in the hands of many individual citizens, and any form of individual dictatorship or small group oligarchy is impossible.
2/ The political structure of Athens can only be realized under the condition of a small country and few people.
3/ The political structure of Athens is the embodiment that the rule of law is higher than the rule of man.
Third, the influence of Athenian democracy on western democracy;
1. The principle that sovereignty belongs to the people advocated by Athenian democracy has become the basic principle of political science followed by western democratic practice.
Sovereignty lies with the people, ordinary people who live in Athens from time to time, but citizens who enjoy legal rights and obligations. The concepts of "citizen" and "citizenship" in Athens are very developed. Civil rights refer to: civil rights, civil obligations and civil rights. Citizenship refers to a specific legal relationship between an individual and a social state. The state is the subject of control and the defender of national sovereignty, followed by the individual who constitutes the state and is governed by the state.
2. Under the modern western political system, the interaction between the state and society is mainly realized through citizens' political participation, and the democracy in Athens undoubtedly contains the earliest experience and enlightenment of citizens' political participation.
The modern western political system is representative democracy. Representative democracy undoubtedly comes from direct democracy in Athens. This is because direct democracy can only be achieved under the conditions of small countries and few people. Therefore, it is inevitable that representative democracy will replace direct democracy.
3. The "rule of law" of Athenian democracy is closely related to the "constitutional rule of law" of western democracy.
Western political science believes that the principle of rule of law includes: the state exercises power according to the constitution and establishes a constitutional system; Restrict state power through decentralization; Administrative power must conform to the law; Protect citizens' freedom and property rights; Everyone is equal before the law. Obviously, most of these principles can be found in the ancient prototype of Athenian democratic judicial politics.