Democracy in Ancient Greece

Democracy in Ancient Greece

Class XXXX, Section XXXX, Fall, 2012

The term democracy was invented by ancient Greece, and it came about through the system of involving all the people in ruling of their land. The ancient Athenian Greeks have been credited with developing democratic rule. Though their governing system may not have been very democratic as present day democracies, it allowed participation of diverse social class of people. This paper will attempt to answer the following questions, what are the conditions underlying the rise and fall of democracy in ancient Greece. At what point in the decline of Greek democracy do Socrates and Plato come in, and why were they advancing a return to aristocratic elitism rather than enthusiastic supporters of direct democracy?

Conditions underlying the rise and fall of democracy in ancient Greece

Ancient Greece was a made up of loose small independent states that were known as poleis, it is estimated that Greece had about 1000 poleis (Smitha, 2011). Majority of these poleis were ruled as oligarchies. The two main oligarchies states were Sparta and Athens. However, these two had different democratic systems, at least at some time in their history.

internal unrests and conflicts were the main driving force of democracy in many of Greece poleis, particularly in Sparta and Athens (Smitha, 2011). We shall use Athens city as an example to examine the conditions underlying the rise and fall of democracy in ancient Greece, which were similarly in other Greece cities.

Athens city bordered the ocean and therefore actively engaged in maritime trade. However, it also heavily depended on agriculture just like Sparta. Like other poleis, Athens was under oligarchy rule and power was held by the local wealth families who owned land and ruled the people within these lands they owned. Good agricultural performance resulted in increase in population, and this led to more pressure on land, which brought social conflict between the poor and the wealth.

The availability of slaves, who provided cheap labor and thus preferred by the wealth against the Greece freemen, was another source of social conflict. The freemen lost jobs and this ignited their unrest. The oligarchies of Athens tried to stop the unrest by appointing Solon to mediate and reach a solution. Solon then tried to solve the unrest by increasing the participation of the poor in government. He did this by dividing Athens into four property classes, each with its own rights and duties. All people were allowed to attend the Ecclesia (Assembly) and could vote. Solon brought more reforms meant to stop unrest and create law. This was the start of democracy and with more contentions in the following years; more democratic practices were adopted by subsequent rulers of Athens.

The fall of democracy in ancient Greece mainly resulted from external aggression. As mentioned by Smitha (2011) during the Peloponnesian war, the Athens people voted against their democratic constitution. This vote and other votes against the constitution were done due to pressure and manipulation. Another aspect that contributed to fall of democracy in ancient Greece and particularly in Athens was because of its own citizens, in this case Plato and Aristotle. These two, used their influential works to discredit the Periclean democratically practices, while praising the Sparta's political stability.

Why Socrates and Plato were advancing a return to aristocratic elitism rather than enthusiastic supporters of direct democracy?

Those who did not support the Athenian democracy did so because to them, it was a just a mob-rule where the political power of the common people was exercised against the wish of the elite. Socrates and Plato were the main intellectuals who also opposed this form of democracy. They asserted that many of the masses were largely unskilled and ignorant and therefore would make wrong decision. To them, governing was a skill, which was supposed to be entrusted to those who were skilled and intelligent, and these were minority (Cartledge, 2011). Cartledge (2011) adds that, Socrates and Plato argued that the knowledge that the ordinary people had was merely an opinion and not true knowledge that could be used.

Socrates and Plato further argued that the masses or ordinary people, since they were ignorant and unskilled were easily control by false rhetoric, so much controlled that they did not have the capacity to take longer viewpoint or holding to a good viewpoint after accepting it. In summary, Socrates and Plato viewed the masses as shortsighted, fickle, self-seeking and easy victims to corrupt orators who were referred as demagogues (mis-leader of the demos). More so, Socrates and Plato felt that the masses were merely a collective tyrant (Cartledge, 2011).

Compare classical anarchist vision of society to Athenian direct democracy

The classical ideological systems was left underdeveloped, its representatives such as Proudhon, Bakunin an Kropotkin that slightly differed but when taken put together forms the basis of anarchists ideologies (Preston, 2003). They agreed that violence was necessary as a way of brining revolutionary, but opposed individual violence. Anarchists also oppose war (antimilitarism) and pacifism, but they agree that diverse tactics should be used to reach their intend objective. Many anarchists support destruction of property. Indeed, some even view this as not a violent act.