The Manifestations and Limitations of Athenian Democracy

The highly perfect democratic system established by the ancient Athenians. It was founded in the 6th century BC, and it was established through a series of reforms (theseus reform, Solon reform and Christini reform) on the basis of the victory of the struggle between civilians and nobles. After the Greek-Persian war in the 5th century BC, the democracy in Athens developed highly and entered its heyday. At this time, the main management institutions of society were the citizens' assembly, the 500-member parliament, the jury court and the Committee of Ten Generals. The citizens' assembly is the highest authority, which is held once every 10 day and 40 times a year. All male citizens over the age of 20 have the right to participate in, discuss and pass the internal and external policies, laws and decrees of the city-state, and examine public officials. At the meeting, citizens can speak and debate freely. When voting on a proposal, people usually raise their hands, and when voting or expelling individuals, they usually throw pottery or other means. The members of the 500-member parliament were originally composed of 50 people from each tribe in 10, and were elected by citizens by lot. Its main responsibility is to prepare proposals for the citizens' assembly and handle the daily administrative affairs of the city-state during the recess of the citizens' assembly. The jury court has 6,000 jury judges, who are drawn by lots by citizens over the age of 30. It is the highest judicial and supervisory body of the city-state, responsible for hearing and judging various important cases, such as treason and dereliction of duty. The General Committee is elected by the citizens' assembly and is responsible for commanding and directing the army and participating in administrative management. Later, the power of the Committee showed a growing trend, and the chief general gradually mastered the real military and political power. During this period, all public offices in Athens (except the Committee of Ten Generals) were open to every citizen, including the consul and all other public offices were elected by lot, and any citizen could be elected. Under the Athenian democratic system, the political and economic life of the polis is relatively open and democratic, and every citizen can directly participate in and discuss politics, which not only coordinates the contradictions among different interest groups within citizens, but also fully mobilizes the intelligence and enthusiasm of citizens. This system was of great progressive significance at that time and played a positive role in promoting the development of Athens' political, economic and cultural undertakings. However, its limitations are also very prominent. Women, foreigners and slaves, who make up the vast majority of the population, have no civil rights. Even farmers and craftsmen with civil rights can't guarantee to fulfill their civil obligations on time because they are busy with their livelihood. Moreover, due to the inequality caused by private property, in fact, most political leaders come from the aristocratic class.

Democracy in Athens is fundamentally different from democracy today in some aspects. Democracy in Athens is quite limited in one major respect, that is, all women, foreigners living abroad and slaves are excluded. These people account for about three-quarters of the adult residents of Athens, but they are deprived of the right to play a role in political activities. The remaining quarter of the people really participate in political activities as fully as we can imagine. The Athenians made every citizen have the same opportunity to hold public office by drawing lots, which really shone with the spirit of democracy and equality, but also permeated with extreme democratic consciousness. The direct democracy in Athens made the parliament the highest state power, and all important political decisions must be approved by the majority of citizens in the parliament. The most obvious advantage of this principle of strictly observing the minority and obeying the majority is fairness, while the most obvious disadvantage is that it opens the door for authoritarian politics.

Why do you say that? Because Athenian democracy only obeys the opinions of the majority and regards the will of the majority as justice, the opinions of the minority are excluded and attacked. This absolutization of the opinions of the majority and the lack of principles to protect the opinions of the minority have caused serious consequences. It stifles the truth and makes the emergence of new ideas encounter many obstacles. Truth is always discovered by a few people, and an ancient and innovative idea is always put forward by the pioneers of thought. It is precisely because Athenian democracy cannot guarantee citizens' freedom of speech and belief that the tragedy of tyranny by the majority has emerged. For example, the famous philosopher and scientist Anatola (Pericles's teacher and close friend) once pointed out that the sun is a burning substance, and the light of the moon is borrowed from the sun, and put forward the correct theory of solar eclipse. However, his theory was not accepted by most people because it was contrary to traditional ideas, so he was put into prison for blasphemy, rescued by Pericles, and deported instead. This is the first case of persecution in human history because scientific views violate religious beliefs. It happened in Athens, then recognized as the most democratic city in the world.

In addition, in democratic institutions such as citizens' meetings, those who put forward various bills and influence the meeting process with their own speeches are often rich in leisure, high in education, with extensive social connections and eloquent. At present, the term demagogue originally refers to a Greek speaker who can effectively influence public opinion. An eloquent person is not necessarily a person who discovers and grasps the truth. In the history of Athens, there have been cases where the citizens' assembly passed the wrong resolution because of the encouragement of the leaders. For example, due to Alkki Addis's instigation, although Nikias publicly exposed Alkki Addis's ulterior motives, the citizens' assembly decided to expedition to Sicily, and the result was that the Sicilian expedition was completely annihilated.