Greek Democracy
Greek Democracy began somewhere around 500 B.C. in Athens and was one of the first known democracies and thought to be one of the most important one in ancient times. Other Greek cities followed suit and also set up democracies with in their city, but not all of them had the same model. None of them was as powerful or stable as the one in Athens. In this particular democracy, they did not vote the representatives in, but they did vote on the legislation and executive bills. Not everyone was allowed to vote however. Only the ‘in’ crowd was allowed to vote. The comon people or economic class were not allowed to vote.
Solon (594 B.C.), Cleisthenes (509 B.C.), and Ephialtes of Athens (462 B.C.) Were all contributors to the development of the Athens Democracy. There is a dispute as to who did what but it was done and it became the way of governing in Athens and other cities in Greece. The longest democratic leader was Pericles. After Pericles died, the democracy was interrupted briefly two times. The interruption was caused by the Oligarchic revolution near the end of the Pepoponnesian War. The democracy was modified, to an extent, after it was restored under Eucleides. Democracy was also halted by the Macedonians in 322 B.C. They were later revived but it is believed that they were not quite the same after that.
There were three political areas in the democratic structure. They were, the assembly (the ‘in’ group, around 6,000 people), the council (around 600 people), and the courts (a minimum of 200 people). The assembly and the courts were the strength and power of the democracy. The citizens who were allowed to vote, were not able to review or prosecute and the council members and all other officeholders could. During the 5th century, the assembly sat as a court of judgement for trials of political stature. It was not a coincidence that 6,000 people was the number for both the quorum and also for the assembly. It was from this pool that the annual jurors were picked for some of the trials. The assembly’s judicial functions were shortened tremendously, but they still kept a role in the initiation of some kinds of political trials.
The assembly held meetings and the members were the ‘in crowd’, or elite, as mentioned previously, and they could attend the meetings if they wanted to or not attend them if they wished. They were not elected officials so this gave them the right to do as they pleased as far as attending the meetings. The worked out proposals or ‘open’ proposals of the Greek democracy were considered by the council. Greek democracy as the Greeks know it today may be much different.
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