Ancient Greece and the formation of Athenian politics. The formation of Athenian political system and the mechanism of internal and external politics were deeply affected by two opposite trends which were characteristic of Ancient Greece civilization: the opposition between democracy and tyranny (Stanton) Government and Politics of Ancient Athens. Athens is known as the birthplace of democracy. But it was a long path to get there. And this democracy didn't exactly function like any nation you think of today. Most people today think of democracy as an inherently good thing. If you're one of those people, it's remove that silly notion from your brain. A democracy can be just as tyrannical as a well tyranny Apr 03, · Athenian democracy refers to the system of democratic government used in Athens, Greece from the 5th to 4th century BCE. Under this system, all male citizens - the dēmos - had equal political rights, freedom of speech, and the opportunity to participate directly in the political arena. In Athenian democracy, not only did citizens participate in a direct democracy whereby they Author: Mark Cartwright
Government and Politics of Ancient Athens | Ancient Athens
Athenian democracy developed around the 6th century BC in the Greek city-state known as a polis of Athensancient athenian politics, comprising the city of Athens and the surrounding territory of Attica. Although Athens is the most famous ancient Greek democratic city-state, it was not the only one, nor was it the first; multiple other city-states adopted similar democratic constitutions before Athens.
Athens practiced a political system of legislation and executive bills. Participation was open to adult, male citizens i. Solon in BCCleisthenes in —07 BCand Ephialtes in BC contributed to the development of Athenian democracy. Ancient athenian politics broke up the unlimited power of the nobility by organizing citizens into ten groups based on where they lived, rather than on their wealth. After his death, Athenian democracy was twice briefly interrupted by oligarchic revolutions towards the end of the Peloponnesian War.
It was modified somewhat after it was restored under Eucleides ; the most detailed accounts of the system are of this ancient athenian politics modification, ancient athenian politics, rather than the Periclean system. Democracy was suppressed by the Macedonians in BC. The Athenian institutions were later revived, but how close they were to a real democracy is debatable.
The word "democracy" Greek: dēmokratiaδημοκρατία combines the elements dêmos δῆμοςwhich means "people" and krátos κράτοςwhich means "force" or "power"and thus means literally "people power". In the words "monarchy" and "oligarchy", the second element comes from archē ἀρχήmeaning "beginning that which comes first ", and hence also "first place or power", "sovereignty".
One might expect, by analogy, that the term "demarchy" would have been adopted for the new form of government introduced by Athenian democrats. However, the word "demarchy" δημαρχία had already ancient athenian politics taken and meant " mayoralty ", the office or rank of a high municipal magistrate.
In present-day use, the term " demarchy " has acquired a new meaning. It is unknown whether the word "democracy" was in existence when systems that came to be called democratic were first instituted.
The first conceptual articulation of the term is generally accepted to be c. This approximately translates as the "people's hand of power", and in the context of the play it acts as a counterpoint to the inclination of the votes cast by the people, i, ancient athenian politics.
that authority as implemented by the people in the Assembly has power. The word is then completely attested in the works of Herodotus Histories 6. Herodotus wrote some of the earliest surviving Greek prose, but this might not have been before or BC.
Around BC an individual is known with the name of Democrates, [5] a name possibly coined as a gesture of democratic loyalty; the name can also be found in Aeolian Temnus. Athens was never the only polis in Ancient Greece that instituted a democratic regime.
Aristotle points to other cities that adopted governments in the democratic style, ancient athenian politics. However, accounts of the rise of democratic institutions are in reference to Athens, since only this city-state had sufficient historical records to speculate on the rise and nature of Greek democracy.
Before the first attempt at democratic government, Athens was ruled by a series of archons or chief magistrates, and the Areopagusmade up of ex-archons. The members of these institutions were generally aristocrats. In BC, Draco replaced the prevailing system of oral law by a written code to be enforced only by a court of law.
His reforms ultimately redefined citizenship in a way that gave each free resident of Attica a political function: Athenian citizens had the right to participate in assembly meetings, ancient athenian politics. His constitutional reforms included establishing four property classes: the pentakosiomedimnoithe hippeisthe zeugitaiand the thetes.
Under these reforms, the boule a council of members, with citizens from each of Athens's four tribes ran daily affairs and set the political agenda. Solon also made significant economic reforms including cancelling existing debts, ancient athenian politics, freeing debtors, and ancient athenian politics longer allowing borrowing on the security of one's own person as a means of restructuring enslavement and debt in Athenian society.
In BC, the nascent democracy was overthrown by the tyrant Peisistratos but was reinstated after the expulsion of his son, Hippiasin Cleisthenes issued reforms in and BC that undermined the domination of the aristocratic families and connected every Athenian to the city's rule. Cleisthenes formally identified free inhabitants of Attica as citizens of Athens, which gave them power and a role in a sense of civic solidarity.
Every male citizen over 18 had to be registered in his deme. While Ephialtes's opponents were away attempting to assist the Spartans, he persuaded the Assembly to reduce the powers of the Areopagus to a criminal court for cases of homicide and sacrilege.
At the same time or soon afterward, the membership of the Areopagus was extended to the lower level of the propertied citizenship. In the wake of Athens's disastrous defeat in the Sicilian campaign in BC, a group of citizens took steps to limit the radical democracy they thought was leading the city to ruin. Their efforts, initially conducted through constitutional channels, culminated in the establishment of an oligarchy, the Council ofin the Athenian coup of BC.
The ancient athenian politics endured for only four ancient athenian politics before it was replaced by a more democratic government. Democratic regimes governed until Athens surrendered to Sparta in BC, when the government was placed in the hands of the so-called Thirty Tyrantswho were pro-Spartan oligarchs.
Philip II had led a coalition of the Greek states to war with Persia in BC, but his Greek soldiers were hostages for the behavior of their states as much as allies. Alexander The Great 's relations with Athens later strained when he returned to Babylon in BC; after his death, Athens and Sparta led several states to war with Macedonia and lost. This led to the Hellenistic control of Athens, with the Macedonian king appointing a local agent as political governor in Athens.
However, the governors, like Demetrius of Phalerumappointed by Cassanderkept some ancient athenian politics the traditional institutions in formal existence, ancient athenian politics, although the Athenian public would consider them to be nothing more than Macedonian puppet dictators, ancient athenian politics.
Once Demetrius Poliorcetes ended Cassander's rule over Athens, Demetrius of Phalerum went into exile and the democracy was restored in BC. However, by now Athens had become "politically impotent". However, when Rome fought Macedonia inthe Athenians abolished ancient athenian politics first two new tribes and created a twelfth tribe in honour of the Pergamene king. The Athenians declared for Rome, and in BC Athens became an autonomous civitas foederataable to manage internal affairs.
This allowed Athens to practice the forms of democracy, though Rome ensured that the constitution strengthened the city's aristocracy. Under Roman rule, the archons ranked as the highest officials. They were elected, and even foreigners such as Domitian and Hadrian held the office as a mark of honour. Four presided over the judicial administration, ancient athenian politics. The council whose numbers varied at different times from to was appointed by lot.
It was superseded in importance by the Areopaguswhich, recruited from the elected archons, had an aristocratic character and was entrusted with wide powers. From the time of Hadrian, an imperial curator superintended the finances. The shadow of the old constitution ancient athenian politics on and Archons and Areopagus survived the fall of the Roman Empire. In 88 BC, ancient athenian politics, there was a revolution under the philosopher Athenion, who, as tyrant, forced the Assembly to agree to elect whomever he might ask to office.
Athenion allied with Mithridates of Pontus and went to war with Rome; he was killed during the war and was replaced by Aristion. The victorious Roman general, Publius Cornelius Sullaleft the Athenians their lives and did not sell them into slavery; he ancient athenian politics restored the previous government, in 86 BC.
After Rome became an Empire under Augustusthe nominal independence of Athens dissolved and its government converged to the normal type for a Roman municipality, with a Senate of decuriones. Estimates of the population of ancient Athens vary, ancient athenian politics. During the 4th century BC, there might well have been some ,—, people in Attica. In the mid-5th century the number of adult male citizens was perhaps as high as 60, but this number fell precipitously during the Peloponnesian War.
From a modern perspective these figures may seem small, but among Greek city-states Athens was huge: most of the thousand or so Greek cities could only muster — adult male citizens each; and Corintha major power, had at most 15, The non-citizen component of the population was made up of resident foreigners metics and slaves, with the latter perhaps somewhat more numerous, ancient athenian politics. Around BC the orator Hyperides fragment 13 claimed that there wereslaves in Attica, but this figure is probably no more than an impression: slaves outnumbered those of citizen stock but did not swamp them.
Only adult male Athenian citizens who had completed their military training as ephebes had the right to vote in Athens. For the most part, Athens followed a citizenship through birth criteria. Such criteria could be further divided into three categories: free birth from an Athenian father, free and legitimate birth from an Athenian father, and free and legitimate birth from an Athenian father and an Athenian mother. Citizenry in ancient athenian politics Athens is speculated to have not simply been a legal obligation to the state, but also a form of ethnic-nationality.
Also excluded from voting were citizens whose rights were under suspension typically for failure to pay a debt to the city: see atimia ; for some Athenians, this amounted to permanent and in fact inheritable disqualification, ancient athenian politics. Given the exclusive and ancestral concept of citizenship held by Greek city-statesa relatively large portion of the population took ancient athenian politics in the government of Athens and of other radical democracies like it, compared to oligarchies and aristocracies.
Some Athenian citizens were far more active than others, but the vast numbers required for the system to work testify to a breadth of direct participation among those eligible that greatly surpassed any present-day democracy, ancient athenian politics.
Citizenship applied to both individuals and their descendants. It could also be granted by the assembly and was sometimes given to large groups e. Plateans in BC and Samians in BC, ancient athenian politics. However, by the 4th century, citizenship was given only to individuals and by a special vote with a quorum of This was generally done as a reward for some service to the state. In the course of a century, the number of citizenships so granted was in the hundreds rather than thousands.
With participation in Athenian Democracy only being available to adult male Athenian citizens, women were left out of government and public roles. Even in the case of citizenry, the term was rarely used in reference to women. Even the term Athenian was largely reserved for just male citizens. In addition to being barred from any form of formal participation in government, women were also largely left out of public discussions and speeches with orators going as far as leaving out the names of wives and daughters of citizens or finding round about ways of referring to them.
Athenian men believed that women had a higher sex drive and consequentially if given free range to engage in society would be more promiscuous. With this in mind, they feared that women may engage in affairs and have sons out of wedlock which would jeopardize the Athenian system of property and inheritance between heirs as well as the citizenry of potential children if their parentage was called into question. These rationales, as well as the barring women from fighting in battle, another requirement of citizens, meant that in the eyes of Athenian men, ancient athenian politics, by ancient athenian politics, women were not meant to be allowed citizenship.
Despite being barred from the right to vote and citizenship overall, ancient athenian politics, women were granted the right to practice religion, ancient athenian politics. Throughout its history, Athens had many different constitutions under its different leaders. There were three political bodies where citizens gathered in numbers running into the hundreds or thousands. These ancient athenian politics the ancient athenian politics in some cases with a quorum ofthe council of bouleand the courts a minimum of ancient athenian politics, on some occasions up to Of these three bodies, the assembly and the courts were the true sites of power — although courts, unlike the assembly, were never simply called the demos 'the people' ancient athenian politics, as they were manned by just those citizens over thirty.
Crucially, citizens voting in both were not subject to review and prosecution, as were council members and all other officeholders. In the 5th century BC, there is often a record of the assembly sitting as a court of judgment itself for trials of political importance and it is not a coincidence that is the number both for the full quorum for the assembly and for the annual pool from which jurors were picked for particular trials.
By the mid-4th century, however, ancient athenian politics, the assembly's judicial functions were largely curtailed, though it always kept a role in the initiation of various kinds of political trial.
The central events of the Athenian democracy were the meetings of the assembly ἐκκλησίαekklesía. Unlike a parliamentthe assembly's members were not elected, but attended by right when they chose. Greek democracy created at Athens was directrather than representative : any adult male citizen over the age of 20 could take part, [35] and it was a duty to do so.
What did democracy really mean in Athens? - Melissa Schwartzberg
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Ancient Greece and the formation of Athenian politics. The formation of Athenian political system and the mechanism of internal and external politics were deeply affected by two opposite trends which were characteristic of Ancient Greece civilization: the opposition between democracy and tyranny (Stanton) Government and Politics of Ancient Athens. Athens is known as the birthplace of democracy. But it was a long path to get there. And this democracy didn't exactly function like any nation you think of today. Most people today think of democracy as an inherently good thing. If you're one of those people, it's remove that silly notion from your brain. A democracy can be just as tyrannical as a well tyranny Apr 03, · Athenian democracy refers to the system of democratic government used in Athens, Greece from the 5th to 4th century BCE. Under this system, all male citizens - the dēmos - had equal political rights, freedom of speech, and the opportunity to participate directly in the political arena. In Athenian democracy, not only did citizens participate in a direct democracy whereby they Author: Mark Cartwright
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