Démocratie à Athènes

Athenian Democracy Info Sheet

Direct Democracy

Athenian government in the fifth century B.C. (500 – 401 B.C.) was perhaps the first true

democracy. The government was of the people and for the people, like ours today, but

Athenian democracy was also by the people to a much greater degree than the large

representative democracies of modern times. But their definition of the “people” was far

narrower than ours today, excluding everyone except for free adult males over the age of 18. In

Athens, all male citizens from the age of 18 were expected by law to participate in the

executive, legislative and judicial branches of government. We rely on elected politicians to run

our government for us, but we have a far broader electoral base.

To a considerable extent, this direct, participatory democracy

was a function of the relatively small size of the population. Athens at

that time had approximately 300,000 inhabitants, about 100,000 of

whom were unenfranchised slaves and 100,000 of whom were

unenfranchised women. About 15,000 to 20,000 inhabitants were

metics (resident foreigners). Of the remaining 100,000 or so males,

perhaps 45,000 – 60,000 were over the age of 18. This limitation of

political rights makes participation much more practical than in the mass

societies of the 21st century. While this is certainly true, it is also

important to understand that the overwhelming majority of its

inhabitants were denied citizenship. From the figures above, the

proportion of the adult population of Athens and the surrounding area

(Attica) who had citizenship was therefore somewhere between 15% and 20%.

The Athenian Assembly

The supreme political body was the Athenian

Assembly. It was open to all free males over 18 whose

mother and father were Athenian. All males falling into this

group were citizens, regardless of income of income or class,

and every male citizen was subject to universal political

service as well as universal military training. The Assembly

met about 40 times per year at the Pynx, a natural

amphitheatre on one of the hills west of the Acropolis in

Athens. Their main task was to enact legislation (laws).

Attendance was normally about 2,000 or 3,000 men. Mostly

craftsmen and artisans attended the assemblies; farmers

being too busy, and aristocrats saw it as beneath their

station in life. There was a requirement that some votes needed a quorum of at least 6,000

citizens (a quorum is the minimum number of voters required for a decision to be valid), so this

gives an idea of the minimum number expected to attend an important assembly meeting.

The right to speak in the assembly was fundamental to citizenship. There were no

political parties in our modern sense, but the evidence suggests that there were some regular

speakers with a following of supporters. The assembly could discuss all matters relating to the

city, including laws, matters of foreign policy, tax, and the upkeep of public buildings. Once the

debate was over, voting was usually taken by a show of hands. However, for the most

important topics, such as treason, secret ballots were held with black and white voting pebbles.

The Council of 500 (Boule)

The Council of 500 (or Boule) prepared the official agenda for the meetings of the

Assembly, and oversaw the implementation of the Assembly’s decisions. Councillors were also

responsible for meeting foreign ambassadors, and they supervised elections and ensured that

all magistrates (civil officers / judges) were scrutinised fully.

The Council was not an elected body. The ten Attic tribes put forward volunteers and

fifty from each of the ten tribes were chosen by lot (randomly). A Council member could serve

only two years in his lifetime, and only one year at a time.

Allotment

The way in which Council members, jurors, and office holders were chosen is

called allotment (also called sortition). This system guaranteed absolute fairness in

the selection of public officials. In the fifth century B.C. this was often done by

placing a number of white and black beans in a box equal to the number of

candidates who volunteered. The white beans would match the number of offices to

be filled and the black beans would match the extra candidates. Each candidate

would reach into the receptacle and pull a bean out, white indicating that he was

chosen and black that he was not. In the fourth century B.C. much more elaborate

voting machines were developed, but they followed the same random principle. This

system of allotment also prevented an ambitious individual from obtaining

dictatorial power in Athenian government.

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