Greek Politicians

The “Polis” was the Greek form of organization since the Eighth century BC.
The term translates as “city-state” or “state-city” and was a territorial unit, with the city, surrounding land and villages, but the most important element was the human community. In the Greek world there were over 200 such states, which were usually a few thousand inhabitants, only three exceed the figure of 20000: Athens, Syracuse and Agrigento.

At first there were laws and they were transmitted orally; they were only known  to heads of large noble families as they applied them arbitrarily. So many the people were claiming written laws, in order for everyone to be aware of the laws.

The first legislator of Athens was Drakon, which has remained famous for the severity of the laws which he made. He was succeeded by Solon, who gave the first real constitution of Athens in 594 BC which remains valid for 86 years. This included: the release of the debts of slaves, replacing the oligarchy known as “power of money”, growing power congregation (ekklesia) and introduced two new assemblies (“council of 400″-bubbles and “people’s court”-Heliaia).

After the leadership of Solon for 36 years the power belonged to the tyrants . The last of these was removed in 510 BC by Cleisthenes, whose laws have changed so radically in Solon’s constitution, making him the founder of the Athenian constitution.

Cleisthenes introduced profound reforms which made democracy exist as a system of government for the first time in the world.
The main ideas of Cleisthenes’s reforms were:

1. Replacement of division into tribes, fraternities and families with a territorial division.

2. Division of Attica into three districts and districts – into smaller areas.

3. Citizen’s rights for foreigners living in Attica.

4. Replacement of Solon’s Council of 400 with a Council of 500, introduction of ostracism and Board of Generals.

In general reforms were to diminish the role of aristocracy, eliminate financial differences and mix the society.

Athenian democracy was established as a result of continuous reorganizations. The name comes from demos-people and kratos-power, so litarally power of the people. Apart from many smaller changes, it was mainly based on the opportunity for all citizens over 20 to take part in governing the country. Athenian democracy also had weak sides, like limited possibility of taking part in the Assembly of Citizens for people living outside Athens. Peasants, especially during harvest, could not take part in voting because of distance they would have to cover to vote. Solution of this problem was delegating a representative from each village who would take care of interests of food producers.

The pace of making decisions was critisised (by Plato and Aristotle) because it was of high importance in those turbulent times. In a situation when the state was in danger, despite the existence of the strategist’s office, the most important decisions had to be made in the Assembly which was not always reasonable.

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