Traces the evolution of Athenian citizenship in the late seventh and early sixth centuries. The Kleisthenian reforms catalyzed Attica’s transformation to a powerful democratic state. The author begins by sketching Aristotelian concepts of the polis and democracy: justice is the essential condition of the state, and citizens are shareholders in a company whose purpose is moral excellence. Poetry, archaeology, and other remnants of Ancient Athens demonstrate these ideas, but citizenship lacked precise, shared understanding. Kylon’s attempted coup d’etat in 630 provoked aristocratic defense of privilege, as well as Drakon’s subsequent codification of customs such as penalties for killing Athenians (versus foreigners). But interstate warfare played a greater role than socioeconomic factors; scarcity of land was more important in undermining tribal affiliations. The reforms of Solon initiated more precise ideals of membership, inheritance, immigration; he also canceled debt, thus ending the possibility of citizens being sold into slavery, which won many different adherents. Further, several of Solon’s laws transformed formerly private concerns such as marriage, orphanage, weights and measures, and public festivals into public concerns. Yet his foremost concern was the process of justice: the well-ordered society is the just society. His controversial policies, particularly the cancellation of debt, led to tripartite factional warfare and the dictatorship of Peisistratos. The overall effect of his 25-year rule was positive for democratization (a la Pinochet or Kirkpatrick). Then followed 510’s diapsephisis, the judgment of fitness for citizenship on the basis of tribal descent. Kliesthenes’ rise to power dispelled this reign of terror; further, good order became equal order. He revised definitions of citizenship and enhanced participation in the legal system, and his reforms benefitted from foreign threats. Citizens were encouraged to work together domestically and in warfare. The inclusion of anthropology elongates the study, relegating some interesting material to the footnotes. In all, a useful historical work.
Athens
17. Mitchell, Democracy’s Beginning (10 Sep 2020)
Describes the birth and evolution of democratic Athens, circa 500-325 BC, the world’s first experiment in radical self-government. In the Archaic Age (~ 750-500 BC), aristocrats lost exclusive hold on power owing to the changing nature of warfare (i.e., greater value of hoplites), trade, and cultural exchange foster by colonization. Solon’s 6th-century reforms abolishing lending against personage and slavery for debt, and establishing equality before the law (but not land redistribution), and particularly Cleisthenes’ moves to provide political power to the demos and the use of ostracism to reign in factions prefigured the transition. The conversion may be traced to 503 BC, and passed the test of the Persian War, which nonetheless demonstrated democratic government requires leadership and decision making. By the Periclean era, as a matter of course selections for (minor) office were by lot and the demos voted for its generals. It was a libertarian era: individual freedom (Isaiah Berlin’s ‘freedom to’) was seen to originate in human nature (versus modern rights), and husbandry was the state’s obligation. Even as the Athenian empire grew, all the member states including oligarchies most valued freedom to set their own rules. The rise of democracy and empire coincided with flourishing arts, public building, public rhetoric: elegance crowned eminence. But the Peloponnesian War revealed the public’s incapacity for strategic decisions (as well as the persistent failures of aristocratic elites). Further, rhetoric and specifically sophism worked to sever faith in the laws as divinely inspired; might makes right evidenced itself in demagogic leadership and imperial ambition. The war was lost, oligarchic coups toppled the demos; but democratic loyalties, always strong among the hoplites) recovered power in 404. Chastened, Athens enacted reforms such as separating laws from decrees, to distinguish between the Assembly’s decision making and officeholders’’ administration, ultimately extending democracy another 80 years. So to test the appellation, the author outlines the processes of voting, administration (financial offices holding much formal power in the 4th century), justice and the courts, and so on. About 6,000 attended the Assembly or the courts, particularly after the introduction of payment for participation. While women were admittedly excluded, he finds slavery was not the basis the city’s economy. Despite its shortcomings – notably the will to power of the 5th-century demos, social excesses such as the Herms affair, imperialism, and susceptibility to demagogues – democratic Athens marked an unprecedented commitment to individual freedom and equality before the law. For Aristotle, too much so: extreme freedom and equality undermine merit and telos. The bigger question is whether such conditions promote or undermine loyalty to the constitution?