When we think of Ancient Athens and its democracy, we don’t necessarily think of the Council of 500. Our focus is on speeches of generals and philosophers, which have also shaped our modern way of thinking. However, what truly set Athenian democracy in motion was the revolutionary idea for the establishment of the Council of 500—a messy yet brilliant assembly of ordinary citizens who took matters of their city into their own hands.
Long before we had career politicians and endless news about political drama, this body, known to the Greeks as the Boule, formed the administrative and political core of Athens in its golden age. It should be noted that the same name, Boule or Vouli is still used by Greeks for their parliament today. The Council of the 500 was where the foundational work of Western governance was shaped by ordinary citizens rather than the economic elite.
Why the Council was a radical idea
The whole political experiment Athens invested in was a radical idea that entrusted the future of the city to the common person rather than a selected few. When Cleisthenes introduced his reforms around 508 BC, he was determined to change the course of his society forever.
The Council was made up of 500 men over thirty years of age, chosen entirely through a lottery system from the ten tribes of Attica (today the Athens metropolitan area). This simple system brought the common man to the forefront of decision-making. One’s local potter, neighbor farmer, or the merchant next door could be taken from his daily life and placed at the center of power.
This method, called sortition, was pure genius at a time when tyrants and tyrannical rulers dominated the known world. It demolished the power of the old aristocratic elite and their strong cliques and built an entirely new system on the optimistic belief that any citizen had the capacity to govern. Instead of investing in career politicians, Athens entrusted its fate to normal people serving for a single year before returning to their ordinary lives.
The work of the Council of 500
One might wonder what these five hundred men actually did when they were called to govern Athens. The answer is pretty much everything and anything of importance. The Council’s main job was to determine what issues the main citizen Assembly or Ekklesia could actually debate and vote on. No proposal could reach the Assembly floor without the Council first shaping it into a preliminary decree.
This gave them immense influence, effectively making them what we would today call the executive branch—for all law and policy. They also had the power to stop charismatic leaders from manipulating the crowd with demagoguery and populist ideas. However, their work didn’t stop there. The Council of 500 also managed the state’s finances, kept an eye on public officials, handled foreign ambassadors, and oversaw public building projects. To keep this running smoothly, the year was split into ten periods, with each tribe’s fifty-man delegation taking turns in acting as a standing committee, essentially running the city around the clock.
It’s easy to dismiss this as ancient history but this innovative institution of the Boule is still alive in modern democracies. The way the Council prepared and vetted issues for the main Assembly is a direct ancestor of the parliamentary committee systems we see today in London, Washington, and beyond. Those committees do the crucial, unglamorous work of drafting and scrutinizing legislation before it ever gets a final vote. The Athenian obsession with everyday citizens holding power to account is the same principle that we see (or should be seeing) in our modern democratic systems.
Ultimately, the Athenian experiment had its share of problems and was far from inclusive by today’s standards. Yet the Council has managed to remain a great example of what happens when a society decides to place its trust not in the powerful few but in the collective wisdom of the many.
Related: One Man’s Plot Unintentionally Launched Democracy in Ancient Athens
See all the latest news from Greece and the world at Greekreporter.com. Contact our newsroom to report an update or send your story, photos and videos. Follow GR on Google News and subscribe here to our daily email!
