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Stockholm, Sweden
My academic blog with history, primarily military history as the main theme. Please leave a comment that can be relevant and useful for the topic which you find interesting. I am writing in several languages, including English, depending on the theme and the languages of the sources. At the moment I am working as guide at Batteriet Arholma military museum in Stockholm. For further information please contact me on lauvlad89@gmail.com

torsdag 10 november 2016

Athens as "illiberal" democracy

One of the standard procedures when teaching history at the primary and high school level is to start with a period of antiquity, mentioning aspects such as the “old Greeks” and “Greek democracy”. Therefore, Athenian democracy is often presented as one of the first examples of the early democratic system in history. However, I personally never had any experience within the educational environment where I was taught that Athenian democracy also can be regarded and presented as “illiberal” democracy. For more information, please read this interesting article of associate professor Aristides Hatzis who is working at the University of Athens.


The Athenian polis, a city-state, was also a “demos”, a collective with existence of political identities and sense of community. This was a case based on a “social contract” – citizenship between the members of the demos and its decision-making institutions. From time context view it is important to understand that Athenian citizenship was limited only to men, born in Athens with both parents being Athenian-born, and who had gone through military training.


The Athenian democracy was among the first city-states to introduce relevant aspects of democracy that in modern meaning would be described as majoritarian rule and popular sovereignty. However, citizens of the Athenian society also developed populism without developing what is regarded as the rule of law principle. Modern states are often described as rule of law states or constitutional states. During the antique period institutions such as a constitution or rule of law were not existing. As Aristides N. Hatzis argues, the Athenian democracy was also an illiberal democracy.[1]


 In principle, it was possible to change or annul any law with a temporary majority rule. The political power of the demos-people was, therefore, more or less unlimited. Aspects framed in modern understanding as “checks and balances” were not in function. Juridical processes were submitted to understandings of citizen’ majority or to judges. Also despite the notion of the citizen the “individual” as a unit of society was not existing. Meaning that individual freedoms and rights were not recognized in the Athenian democracy – only the political rights were.[2]


The recognition regarding rights was based on the right for the demos to exist as an institution for a collective decision-making process. And only the citizens of Athens had political rights despite being consisting minority in comparison with the population numbers of residents. The political rights of citizens were limited only to around 10-15% per cent of Athenian population The concept of ”liberty” and “individual” was different from those which were constructed during the revolutionary processes in later 18th and during the 19th century such as revolutions in USA, France and German-confederation.


For example what in modern terms would be regarded as “individualism” in sense of behaviour was within Athenian society in principle regarded as something morally negative. The principle of “ostracism” was, therefore, a kind of contemporary safeguard where citizens and politicians who were considered as too selfish, influential or powerful often were forced to abandon the polis and its demos. 


Comparing to the Athenian democracy the meaning of a modern liberal democracy is also seen as a political sphere where certain decisions are to be excluded from the decision-making process of majoritarianism. Meaning that the actors such as society in general (demos) or government are prohibited to intervene and take actions towards an individual citizen or resident based on the notions of civil liberties and human rights. A liberal democracy is therefore organized by including negative rights and freedoms which are limiting a government to interfere in accordance with a legally binding institution as a charter, constitution or basic law. Within the legal frameworks such as these the “safeguarding” aspects and “checks and balances” are influencing the political behaviour of the individuals and demos.


One example of Athens not being a rule of law open society can be understood from the terms of the trial of six generals after the naval battle of Arginusae in 406 BCE. Despite the Athenian victory over Sparta, 6 of the 8 generals were put on trial because they failed to rescue the survivors of sunken triremes (warships) due to a wild storm in the area. The six generals were sentenced to death after a messy trial, as a result of a mix of political manoeuvres and emotional outbursts despite the attempts of several officers to enforce the law and ensure a fair trial. One of the law-abiding officers was Socrates who at the time was president of the court. He later argued and advocated for rule of law viewed from a modern perspective, that the difference between democracy on one side and tyranny and oligarchy on the other was that a democratic state is administrated by its laws.



The failure of protecting the “rights” of the defendants in the Arginusae trial and the dodging of the law to achieve political ends led to the prosecution of Socrates himself. By such means, Athenian democracy was not similar to a constitutional or liberal-democratic one. It was a society based on rule by male politicians and not ruled by the law.






[1] Hatzis, N. Aristides. The Illiberal Democracy of Ancient Athens. Publication date: 2016-07-21. Downloaded: 2016-11-05. Website: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/305473965_The_Illiberal_Democracy_of_Ancient_Athens
[2] Hatzis s.1. 

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