Governance and Direct Democracy in Ancient Greece

Ancient Greece is where the first form of direct democracy developed in the world. It was called demokratia (δημοκρατία), literally meaning “rule by the people.”

Cleisthenes was the Athenian lawgiver credited with the constitutional reforms which laid the foundations for the first democracy around 508 BC. The reforms earned him the title of “the father of Athenian democracy.”

Athenian democracy was actually the first form of direct democracy in the world, meaning that rather than having elected representatives make the important decisions, this was done directly through the participation of citizens, or the electorate.

Athenian direct democracy scaled down the power of the nobility in the city’s policies, while increasing the power of the middle class. Direct democracy is the purest form of a government in which citizens rule themselves.

Reforms of Cleisthenes

Cleisthenes’ basic reform was to reorganize the entire citizen body into ten new tribes (municipalities), each of which was to contain elements drawn from the whole of Attica. The tribes were organized based on the place of residence.

These were the key part of the mechanism for choosing the members of a new political and administrative Council of Five Hundred, whose function was to prepare business for the Assembly.

The Council, or Boule, meaning Parliament (Greek: Βουλή), was drawn roughly equally from each tribe to involve all of Attica for the first time in the political process. This means all 140 villages, or demes (plural of demos), were assigned a quota of councilors—as many as twenty-two supplied by one large demos and as few as one or two by some very small ones.

According to Herodotus, Cleisthenes’ intention was to reorganize the citizen body for military purposes rather than to reform the political system. The ancient Greek historian called him, “the man who introduced the tribes and democracy.”

The reforms served the military purposes splendidly. Military command was vested in ten strategoi (Greek: στρατηγοί), or commanders. It should be pointed out that the usual translation, “generals,” obscures the important point that the commanders were expected to direct by sea as well as by land. Normally, each of the ten tribes supplied one of these generals, who were always directly elected.

Voting in Ancient Athens

To determine who would serve on the Council of Five Hundred, Athenians relied on a system known as triage. There were ten tribes in Athens, and each tribe was responsible for providing fifty citizens who would serve for a single year.

Each eligible citizen was given a personalized pinakion, a small bronze plate serving as a form of identification. The identification was placed in a sophisticated marble apparatus called a kleroterion, or ballot box (literally a lottery machine). Its purpose was to randomly select each tribe’s members for the council.

The process of selection through a ballot box was run by ten overseers, one from each tribe. Their role was to collect the identification belonging to their tribesmen and arrange them in the appropriate column. Once all the tiles were lined up, the actual selection process could commence.

A crucial component of the ballot box was a narrow tube with a funnel-shaped extension at the top. The overseers would insert a specific number of white and black bronze dice through the funnel, allowing them to randomly arrange themselves inside the tube. The number of dice used depended on the ratio between the total number of citizens and the number being elected. For instance, if they were to choose a hundred representatives from a pool of three hundred citizens, they would need thirty dice, or ten white and twenty black in other words.

Using a mechanism consisting of two wedges, the operator of the machine released the dice one by one through the lower end of the tube. Each dice determined the fate of one row in the ballot box. If a black dice was drawn, the entire row was eliminated. If it was white, the entire row was selected. Since each row contained exactly one representative from each tribe, this procedure ensured that, regardless of the outcome, all tribes would always have equal representation.

The importance of random selection of candidates was emphasized. The Athenians regarded randomness as an embodiment of true democracy. Sortition not only ensured equality of opportunity but also provided equality of chance. No one could be elected because of wealth, rhetorical advantage, or the right connections. Furthermore, in direct democracy, voting by lot eliminated any chance of pre-election manipulation such as bribery. One could not bribe voters when no voting was involved.

The Assembly in Direct Democracy

In ancient Athens, all laws and court cases were determined by the Assembly (Ekklesia).  This was a huge democratic body in which every male citizen had a say. Of the thirty thousand to sixty thousand citizens of Athens, about six thousand regularly attended and participated in meetings of the Assembly.

The Assembly met in a natural amphitheater on top of a hill called Pnyx, across the Acropolis. Pnyx comes from the Greek word meaning “tightly packed.” It could hold between six thousand to thirteen thousand people.

The agenda of the Assembly was set by the Council of Five Hundred, but all legislation and government policies were put to a vote. Voting was by show of hands, and the winner was determined by nine “chairmen.” Athenians were very careful to avoid any possibility of cheating the system.

Voting through a ballot box was a public event, and Athenians typically placed a high value on openness and transparency in all spheres of public life. Candidates for a few positions in Athens, such as those of military generals, were elected by the Assembly. Each year, ten generals were elected by a simple vote of thumbs up or down from the full Assembly.