SCHOOL OF LAW

CHRIST (DEEMED TO BE UNIVERSITY)

CIA – 1

POLITICAL THEORY
(Athenian Democracy and Socrates)

SUBMITTED BY-
PRATEEK KANAVI
19113027
BA LLB

SUBMITTED TO-
NISHIKANT BORGE

SCHOOL OF LAW
CHRIST DEEMED TO BE UNIVERSITY
LAVASA, PUNE
ATHENIAN DEMOCRACY AND SOCRATES
 Athenian democracy first developed in the Greek city state of Athens which included

the city of Athens and the surrounding territory like Attica. This is described as the first

democracy in the world. Solon, Cleisthenes and Ephialtes were the contributors to the

Athenian democracy. Later many city states established democracy based on the Athenian

model. Socrates is considered as a classical Greek philosopher from Athens, who revolted

against the idea of democracy in his country.

ORIGIN:

Athens was not the only city in the Ancient Greece that instituted democracy. Many

other cities had also inculcated democracy in their own form. Before the first attempt to form

democratic government, Athens was ruled by rulers (Archon or chief magistrate). In 621BC

Draco (the first recorded legislature of Athens) replaced the present system of oral laws with

written code of laws to be only enforced by the court of law. Later in the 6th century BC,

Solon issued reforms that defined citizenship in a way that Athenian citizens got the rights to

participate in assembly meetings. He gave citizenship to all the free people of Athens who

owned land in the state. He also formed a council consisting of 400 members which included

members from all the four tribes of Athens. This council, called the boule, ran daily affairs

and set political agenda. The other major contribution by Solon was that he made the

assembly (or Ecclesia). Democracy was overthrown by Peisistratos until his son Hippias

came back in 510.  Cleisthenes then brought about reforms which made all the Athenian

families connect to the city’s rules. He formally identified free inhabitants of Attica as the

citizens of Athens by making the original three tribes politically irrelevant and made ten new

tribes. This was brought about by three treaties called demes, was to be signed by the entire
male above eighteen years of age. The next set of reforms came in by Ephialtes, who reduced

the powers of the Aeropagus to a criminal court. Later it was lowered to level of propertied

citizenship. After Athens saw defeat in the Sicilian campaign a group of people tried to limit

the radical democracy which they thought was going to ruin the city. This led to oligarchy in

411 BC. It only remained for four months before it was overruled by a more democratic

government. Later in 404 BC all the democracy was given up when Athens was surrendered

to Sparta. After a year, pro-democracy elements regained control, and democratic forms

persisted until King Phillip II conquered Athens in 338 BC.

STRUCTURE:

Democracy in Athens was not limited to giving right to vote to the free people of the

city but also included a representative body of legislatures. In a greater sense, people

governed themselves, debated and voted individually for matters great and small. However,

young men above the age of 18 years of age and who could prove that their parents are not

slaves were enrolled in the “Assembly List”. The assembly was generally called as the

Demos which generally consisted of the population and the assembly of citizens which

governed the state. This demos was the central institution of the democracy. Decrees of the

Assembly usually started with the phrase “It seemed best to the Demos…,”

THREE PILLARS OF ATHENIAN DEMOCRACY:

 The Athenian democracy many rested on the three main pillars. They are the

assembly of demos, the council of 500 and the people’s court. The actual legislature

contained of both the assembly and the council who were named as the LAWMAKERS.

 ASSEMBLY – The assembly was basically the regular gathering of male citizens

(women were allowed but did not enjoy political rights) to listen, discuss and vote on

matters regarding every aspect of the people including the public and private life of a

person. This was a regular opportunity to all the males in the country, regardless of

their station, to speak their mind and excise their right to vote. This was the most

basic and definitive institution of the Athenian democracy. All the males were given

equal opportunity to voice their words and weren’t discriminated on the basis of cast,

creed, and wealth or in any other way. However, these men could lose the right to

participate in the assembly if they committed several offences. These citizens were

also paid in order to make sure that the poor could not miss out the assembly.

 COUNCIL – The council of 500 represented the full-time government of Athens

which included 50 people from each of the ten tribes in the state. These members

were the councillor and served for one year. The main work of the assembly is to

prepare the agenda for the assembly meeting, other than which it could issue decree in

some matters. This council met to discuss and vote for the preliminary decree which

were then introduced in the assembly (if passed).

 PEOPLE’S COURT – People’s court was basically a place where the juries heard the

cases of the common people and would vote on the punishments if found guilty.

These juries were also appointed by an oath but they could not be removed because of
 misconduct or offences. These courts basically received two types of suit. The private

suit and the public suit. The cases were put forward by the litigants themselves based

on certain procedure. The procedure consisted of both the parties speaking in the

given time to present themselves.

SOCRATES AND DEMOCRACY:

Socrates was in his adult life when democracy was run in Athens. He was also a part

of the council during this period. He has said that he was just a part of the council and did not

take part in any political activity. He not only openly criticized the Athenian democracy but

also said that no other form of the government is ideal. Socrates and his opposition to

democracy is one of the greatly debated topics in philosophy. Philosophers claim that

Socrates did not favour the idea of philosophical king, rather claimed that he did not take any

interest in politics as he said that he could not look into other’s life and tell them how to live

when he himself doesn’t understand how to live a life. It is often claimed that most of the

hate towards democracy came from Plato who could not overcome what happened with his

teacher. However, Socrates considered the rule of the Thirty Tyrants less legitimate than the

Democratic Senate that sentenced him to death.

WHAT DOES DEMOCRACY RESULT INTO:

Since the middle of the 20th century, most countries have claimed to be a democracy,

regardless of the actual makeup of its government. Yet, after the collapse of Athenian

democracy, few countries thought it to be a good form of government because no legitimate

arguments came up to counter the negative accounts of Plato and Aristotle. They saw

democracy as a sort of collective tyranny which was ruled by the rich on the poor.
Throughout the 18th century democracy was consistently condemned. Sometimes, mixed

constitutions evolved with a democratic element, but it definitely did not mean self-rule by

citizens.

Thus democracy, according to me, cannot always be purely the self-rule of people. It

always comes with lot of interventions in the form of military dictatorship otherwise in the

form of dictator inculcated into democracy. Democracy is mainly given by Athens, however,

in the modern world of feminism and gender equality democracy has got a different sense

overall. But the basic idea of self-rule remains the same.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
 Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia (www.en.wikipedia.org)

 Ancient history encyclopaedia (www.ancient.eu)

 Athenian Democracy: a brief overview (Christopher W. Blackwell)