The Greek City-State: Democratic Institutions in Athens

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Book No. – 4 (Political Science)

Book Name – Western Political Thought (Shefali Jha)

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1. DEMOCRACY IN ATHENS

2. POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS OF ATHENIAN DEMOCRACY

3. THE SOCIOLOGICAL BASIS OF ATHENIAN DEMOCRACY

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The Greek City-State: Democratic Institutions in Athens

Chapter – 1

Historical context is essential for understanding the ideas of thinkers like Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle.
Socrates and Plato were Athenian citizens, often critical of Athens’ social and political institutions.
Understanding their works requires knowledge of how the Athenian political system functioned.
Aristotle was not Athenian but spent most of his life in Athens, studying with Plato and later founding his own school.
All three philosophers’ political thought was influenced by the Athenian city-state.
Ancient Greek history is divided into four periods:
- Mycenaean period (1600–1100 BCE)
- Dark Ages (1100–700 BCE)
- Archaic Age (700–480 BCE)
- Classical Age (480–320 BCE)
The story begins around 800–700 BCE when the Dark Ages ended and the Archaic Age began.
Population explosion in Greece led to the establishment of Greek city-states and the creation of colonies around the Mediterranean.
By 750 BCE, Greek city-states began founding colonies, initially along the Aegean coast of Asia Minor, later extending to areas like the Black Sea, Albania, Southern Italy, Sicily, Southern France, and even Northeastern Spain.
Greek colonies were established in Egypt and Libya.
By the 6th century BCE, Greek influence extended well beyond Greece, covering a larger cultural and linguistic area.
These colonies were not controlled politically by their founding cities but maintained religious and commercial links.
Some modern cities, like Marseilles, Naples, and Istanbul, originated as Greek colonies.
By the Classical Era, there were more than 1,500 city-states in the region, with each city-state functioning as an independent political unit.
The Greek city-states were undergoing political transitions during the Archaic and Classical periods.
Initially, Greek city-states were ruled by kings called basileus.
By around 700 BCE, kings were replaced by archons (groups of three men) in most city-states.
The archon eponymous served as chief magistrate, the polemarch was the head of the armed forces, and the archon basileus performed religious duties.
In Athens, archons were elected from the nobility for ten-year terms, later reduced to one year by 683 BCE.
Over time, the number of archons in Athens grew to nine.
After their term, archons became lifetime members of the Council of Areopagus, which was responsible for governance.
In the 7th century BCE, Athens was governed by an aristocracy: the nine archons and the Council of Areopagus.
In other Greek city-states, kingship was also replaced by oligarchy, the rule of a few, usually the noble-born and the wealthy.

DEMOCRACY IN ATHENS

Athens has received more historical attention than other Greek city-states due to several factors.
Athens was larger than most city-states, both in terms of territory and population.
In the 5th century BCE, Athens had around 50,000 citizens, while Sparta had only 10,000.
Many city-states had citizen bodies of about 400 to 900 citizens.
Attica, with Athens at its center, covered 2,650 sq. kms, whereas most city-states had only 50 to 100 sq. kms.
Athens was politically unique, as it remained a democracy from 500 BCE to around 300 BCE with few interruptions.
The flourishing of culture in Athens, including philosophers like Plato and Socrates, dramatists like Aeschylus, Euripides, and Sophocles, and fine art, may have been linked to its democratic practices.
Other Greek city-states were focused on colonization during the 8th to mid-6th centuries BCE, while Athens remained relatively quiet.
Athens rose to prominence in the 5th century BCE, partly due to the democratic institutions established by Cleisthenes in 508/507 BCE.
Athens played a significant role in the Greco-Persian Wars:
- Defeated the Persian army at Marathon in 490 BCE.
- Defeated the Persian fleet at Salamis in 480 BCE.
- Established the Delian League in 478 BCE, leading to the eventual Peace of Callias in 449 BCE.
The growth of Athens’s power in the 4th and 5th centuries may have been tied to its new form of government.
Western political thought is often seen as a response to Athenian democracy.
The history of political thought in the West reflects concerns about the risks of democratic rule.
Historians debate when Athenian democracy was first established, with Cleisthenes’s reforms in 508/507 BCE often seen as a key moment.
Four important moments in the development of Athenian democracy:
1. Solon’s economic reforms (late 6th century BCE).
2. Cleisthenes’s reorganization of tribes (early 6th century BCE).
3. Ephialtes and Pericles’s reforms (462–460 BCE).
4. Changes of 404–403 BCE.
Solon became the archon eponymous in 594 BCE and made significant economic reforms.
Solon’s reforms included canceling all debts, forbidding debt-slavery, and returning land to hektemorioi (tenant farmers).
Solon formalized the Athenian population into four property classes based on land produce:
1. Pentakosiomedimnoi (top class, with ≥ 500 measures).
2. Hippies (cavalry class, with 300-500 measures).
3. Zeugitai (infantry class, with 200-300 measures).
4. Thetes (manual laborers, with < 200 measures).
Thetes made up more than half of Athens’s citizen population.
Solon allowed citizens from all four classes to participate in political institutions, breaking the previous dominance of the nobility.
Solon reduced the power of the Areopagus by allowing the archons to be chosen from the first two property classes.
Solon established the boule, a council to advise the archons, open to the first three classes.
Solon increased the importance of the ekklesia, allowing all citizens, including thetes, to vote on policy.
Solon reformed the judicial system, allowing citizens from all classes to serve as jurors in new courts.
Solon’s reforms survived the tyranny of Peisistratus, who ruled Athens from 559–556 BCE and 546–528 BCE, keeping Solon’s constitution in place.
Peisistratus’s sons were overthrown by Cleisthenes, who is considered the real founder of Athenian democracy due to his reforms in 508/507 BCE.
Cleisthenes reorganized the social structure of Attica, dividing it into 10 new tribes based on demes (residence).
Attica was divided into 139 demes, classified into coast, inland, and city regions.
The demes were grouped into 10 trittyes, each tribe consisting of three trittyes from different regions.
Cleisthenes’ reforms created a new political community, linking center and periphery of Attica.
Cleisthenes’s reforms allowed for the inclusion of all citizens in Athens’s political institutions, fostering unity.

POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS OF ATHENIAN DEMOCRACY

Ekklesia was the primary political institution in Athens, and every male Athenian citizen over 20 years old had the right and duty to attend.
Citizenship was restricted to free-born Athenian males, and out of about 300,000 in Athens, only around 50,000 were citizens.
The quorum for the ekklesia was set at 6,000, and it met around 40 times a year (about every nine days).
At least 10 meetings annually were crucial, discussing matters like state officers’ confidence, price of corn, defence, and confiscation of property.
By 403 BCE, after the restoration of democracy, payment was introduced for attending, with citizens paid around three obols (roughly one day’s wage).
A five-day notice was given for meetings, with placards in the agora about the proposals.
Citizens were herded into meetings with ropes dipped in red coloring; late attendees were fined.
Speeches were allowed for everyone, regardless of social status, contributing to the principles of isegoria (equal opportunity to speak) and parrhesia (frank and critical speech).
Decisions were made through a show of hands, recorded, and important decisions were carved into stone tablets.
Graphe paranomon was a legal suit against proposals violating the law, and eisangelia allowed any citizen to bring charges of crimes against the state, including treason.
Boule (Council) was another central institution, in session year-round, responsible for preparing the ekklesia’s agenda and executing its decisions.
The Boule had 500 citizens, 50 from each of the 10 tribes, with each tribe’s representatives serving for 36 days.
Every day, a chairman was selected by lot to preside over the Boule and ekklesia meetings.
Membership in the Boule was limited to the first three property classes and chosen through the deme.
Boule proposed recommendations or open questions for the ekklesia to decide.
The Boule was supported by around 600 magistrates, including the strategoi (10 generals) who were crucial for military decisions.
Most magistrates were chosen by lot, and they had to undergo an audit (euthynai) after their term to prevent corruption.
The dikasteria (court system) was an essential part of Athenian democracy, and 6000 jurors were selected yearly by lot, mostly from the poorer classes.
Courts ranged in size from 201 to 501 jurors and were in session about 200 days a year.
No lawyers were allowed; each side had equal time to present their case, and jurors voted anonymously without deliberation.
The archons and Areopagus continued from earlier times but had their powers diminished over time.
From 487/486 BCE, archons were chosen by lot from a list of 500, weakening their position.
Areopagus lost powers of scrutiny over officeholders, with these powers transferred to the ekkklesia by 460–452 BCE.
Archonship opened to the zeugitai class in 457 BCE.

THE SOCIOLOGICAL BASIS OF ATHENIAN DEMOCRACY

In Athens, out of a population of 250,000–300,000, about 80,000–100,000 were slaves, 25,000 were metics (resident aliens with no political rights), and Athenian women had no political rights, with only up to 50,000 Athenian malesconsidered citizens.
This raises doubts about Athens being truly democratic, as the non-participation of the majority undermines the active participation of the minority.
Both Hannah Arendt and Marxists agree that slavery was the basis of Athenian democracy, although their views differ.
- Arendt saw slavery as enabling free citizens to focus on politics and freedom, while Marx and Engels criticized it for fostering inequality and depriving Greeks of human creativity.
E.M. Wood presents an alternative view, arguing that ordinary peasant citizens and craftsmen were the foundation of Athenian democracy.
Wood argues that after Solon’s reforms in 594 BCE, which abolished debt-bondage, small independent farmersemerged, who, despite owning a few slaves, had to work hard themselves.
These farmers and craftsmen participated in Athenian democracy despite their busy schedules, and payment for attending the assembly was introduced to encourage their participation.
Athenian farmers had a close relationship with the city, participating in markets, religious festivals, courts, and military service.
Every Athenian male citizen over 18 had to serve in the army, which was a citizen army made up of different property groups.
- Cavalrymen (hippies class) and hoplites (zeugitai class) were those who could afford horses and armor, while the thetes, poorer citizens, served as rowers on the triremes.
The Athenian navy, vital for the Delian League and imperial expansion, relied on the thetes who had a say in political decisions through the assembly and dikasteria.
The rise of Athenian power led to conflict with Sparta, culminating in the Peloponnesian War (431 BCE–404 BCE), where Athens’s democratic regime was blamed for its defeat.
Scholars, including Wood, argue that Athenian politics was not restricted to the rich; wide participation in politics was possible for all male citizens regardless of wealth, ancestry, or education.
Women in Athens were confined to the private sphere and had no role in public life, while men participated in public life through gymnasia, agora, and ekklesia.
The concept of eros or love in Athens often denoted a relationship between an older man and his younger male lover, while women were primarily seen as necessary for child-bearing.
The social and political structure of Athens influenced the writings of Plato, Aristotle, and Socrates, who responded to Athenian democracy:
- Socrates’ insistence on parrhesia (free speech) mirrored democratic practices.
- Plato criticized democracy, comparing it to an uncontrolled beast in the Republic.
- Aristotle defined political rule as an alternation between ruling and being ruled, reflecting the role of Athenian male citizens as citizen-subjects.