Athenian democracy – especially the mature democracy after 403 B.C.E., as described in Morgens H. Hansen’s The Athenian Democracy in the Age of Demosthenes (Hansen 1999) was fundamentally representative rather than direct. At no time did more than a small fraction of the male citizenry of Athens gather to vote. The meeting place of the People’s Assembly could hold only 6,000 and later perhaps 8,000, out of an estimated 30,000 to 60,000 eligible citizens. Thus, the People’s Assembly was a sample of the demos. But the decisions made there were treated as if the entire demos had voted. What is more, most governmental decisions were not made by the People’s Assembly, but by smaller representative groups of citizens. These representatives were not elected. They were chosen by lot. publicdeliberation.net/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1220&context=jpd
Posted on: Sun, 21 Dec 2014 20:30:51 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015