Democracy in Ancient Greece

The first city states called 'polis' came into existence in the region of today's Greece in about 1000 BC. After long fights, Greece was divided into three states on cultural basis, namely - Sparta (Doric part), Arcadia (Achaean part) and Attica (Ionic part). Sparta had the lowest cultural status but the greatest military power, while the other two had more cultural importance. Both Arcadia and Attica could never stop the Spartans from winning the battles. Fortunately, some of the Ionian citizens i. e. the citizens of Attica, were lucky enough to survive these battles and later on, they founded the institution named 'Democracy'. In Greek language, democracy means 'the rule of the people'. To abolish several domestic problems, democracy was first introduced in Athens, situated in the Peloponnese part of the Attica state. This was sometime around the fourth century BC.

At that time, only adult males were qualified to vote in the assembly. The population of Attica state must have been around 250,000 to 300,000 and out of those around 30,000 must have been adult male citizens. This number moved up to around 60,000 in the mid fifth century but it again fell down at the time of the Peloponnesian war.

Citizenship in Athens
Male adults, who had completed the military training as an 'Ephebes', could qualify to vote. This omitted the rest that included the slaves, women, children, foreigners (the metics) and the atimos (citizens who failed to pay their timely tax). Despite the exclusion, a majority of the population took active part in the government formation. There was no property limit required to be a part of the government system, but certain norms, like ancestral conception of the citizenship, were there. This meant that the citizen had to be an Athenian Citizen from both sides of his family and thus excluded the children of Athenian man and a Metic woman. At first the citizenship was granted to a large group of people, but later on, it was limited to only a special vote by an individual with a quorum of 6000. This procedure was practiced as a reward for some extraordinary service for the state.

Governing Bodies
The Assembly, the Court and the Council were the three main political bodies. There was an Archon and his eight assistants, who were selected annually. The council and the court held the main source of power. The courts were staffed by a different body of citizens, above the age of 30. And the voters were not allowed to review and prosecute, like the council members and other officials.

Assembly
The meeting of the assembly was a grand event in the Greek democracy. Any adult, male 'citizen' could take part in the assembly and it was mandatory to do so. The assembly members were not elected like those in the parliament. In some cases, the quorum of 6000 was maintained. The membership was based on the choice of the members. The assembly elected many of the important officials. The assembly made executive pronouncements, like granting citizenship to foreigners, deciding to go for a war etc. It did legislative work and all the political trials were carried out in the assembly itself.

Later on, the trials and legislation were transferred to the courts. One had to physically attend the meeting, to be able to vote. Military service prevented people from citizenship. Initially the voting was done by simply gesturing with the hand, but as the number of the voters increased, the use of small colored stones was in practice, with white for yes and black for no. These stones were collected in a large jar and at the end of every meeting, they were counted as 'ballots'. Ostracism (where the citizen was barred from the city/state for ten years), required the voters to scratch their names on an Ostraka (piece of broken pottery). By fifth century BC, the number of annual meetings of the assembly was ten, as the calender that they followed, the Hellenic Calender, was of ten months. Other special meetings were also called upon at times of emergency. Attendance was not always compulsory.

The Council
The council consisted of a total of 500 members. Magistrates presided over the meetings of the assembly. The presidency rotated between the ten magistrates, on a monthly basis. Ten sets of magistrates served each year. The officials were selected from the lot and chaired the meeting of both, the council and the assembly. The president also held all the keys to the treasury department and the seal to the city of Athens. The Council was the executive committee of the Assembly. All the activities of the different boards, that carried out the various administrative functions of the city, were coordinated by the council. For this, they chose ten different boards at random, responsible for various areas from religion to naval affairs. The council was a very important element of the democracy, but it didn't get its appropriate attributes.

The Courts
The legal system moved around the jury courts. There were large panels, selected from the quorum of 6000 citizens, above the age limit of 30. There were two essential suits, known as 'dike' or a private suit which was smaller and 'graphe' or public suit which was larger. For a private suit, the number of people on the jury was 201 and for the public suit, it was 501. The jury was selected by a panel of 6000 jurors (600 jurors from each of the ten tribes). The process of justice was speedy and a case didn't last for more than a day. Appeals were not allowed. At the time of Pericles, the payment to the jurors was introduced. There were no lawyers or judges. Hence, the system tilted towards unprofessionalism.

There are some important stages that made an important contribution in the development of the democracy in the ancient Greece, they are as follows:

1. Solon (600-561 BC): There was political instability due to the debt bondage of the citizens and loss of holdings to the creditors as well. Those who were rich, wanted the power. At that time Solon was elected as the king (archon) with plenipotentiary powers in 594 BC; a compromise made with the hope that he will do some major reforms in the legal system.
2. Tyranny of the Pisistratids (510-562 BC): The compromise with Solon had completely failed and these autocrats then took the control of Athens, which partly damaged the democracy.
3. Moderate Democracy of Cleisthenes (510-462 BC): At the end of the tyranny, there was a dispute between Isagoras and Cleisthenes. Cleisthenes had promised the citizens with the provision of better resources and he did. He reformed the social organizations and ended the aristocratic rules.
4. Radical Democracy of Pericles (462-431 BC): Ephialtes was Pericles' mentor. He ended the political force of Areopagus i.e. the Assembly.
5. Oligarchy (431-403 BC): Athens lost the war against Sparta. This was followed with two Oligarchic revolutions that tried to destroy the democracy.
6. Radical Democracy (403-322 BC): The Polis was formed and this was the time of stability. Orators like Lysias, Demosthenes and Aeschines were busy in deciding what was best for the polis.
7. Macedonian and Roman Domination (322-102 BC): The democracy was slowly progressing towards its present form, despite the outside forces of the Roman and Macedonian empires.

Around 355 BC, political trials were held in courts and not the assemblies. The court had the powers to validate or rule out, the decisions made by the assembly. There was lack of a neutral phenomenon to intervene. There was one more important factor in the Greek democracy and that was the 'Ho boulomenos', meaning 'he who wishes' or the 'citizen initiator', around whom the whole system whirled. He was the speaker in the assembly and proposed the laws. He didn't have any set tenure. Hence the council, the assembly, the officials who did all the administrative work, and the citizen initiator, were the cornerstones of the democracy of the ancient Greece.

There were a few backdrops, such as less chances of active participation of the peasants living outside the city of Athens. Plato and Aristotle criticized the speed of law-making that mattered at times of trouble. As there was no strategist's office, as such all the important decisions had to be taken in the assembly itself. This was not always reasonable.

Although it was not the perfect democracy, there is no huge difference in the basic structure, between the ancient Greek democracy and the modern day democracy. For planting the roots of the present, strong democratic structure, we must thank the ancient Greeks!