The Athenian Direct Democracy Compared with the United States’ Representative Democracy

The Athenian Direct Democracy The place where laws were created was called the Assembly. 6000 citizens were needed to vote on major decisions! B/c the numbers grew so large, other official positions were created to help organize the government.

The Athenian Direct Democracy Athenian citizens also served on juries to determine someone’s innocence or guilt. Juries were made up of 200-6,000 people! Pericles was the first to pay officials and juries for their government service. Image: It was a piece from the legendary Athenian democracy called Kleroleria, used to select randomly the jury that would serve that day in the court of law: free people names were written in metal plates inserted in the horizontal slots in the stone. An opaque metal tube was previously filled with a random sequence of white or black balls which were extracted one by one. If the ball was white, the whole line of names was accepted for duty that day; if black the line was rejected.

The Athenian Direct Democracy Votes to “ostracize” were also held once a year. If enough people voted, a person could be ostracized (kicked out) of Athens for up to 10-20 yrs. Ostracism was first introduced by Cleisthenes in the 5th century, as a guard against tyranny. It was intended to serve as a safeguard against one individual gaining a disproportionate amount of power and influence in Athens; the punishment for one who was ostracized was 10 years of exile from Attica. The name ostracism is derived from the broken sherds of pottery that were used to cast votes. These sherds, called ostraka (or ostrakon, singular), were inscribed with the name of who one wished to exile and then deposited in urns to be counted. Ostraka have been found of vastly different materials--there are examples of sherds from figured, black-glazed, or plain pottery, as well as fragments from rooftiles and well heads. Approximately 11,000 ostraka have been found in the ancient Agora as well as the Athenian Karameikos, or potters quarter.

The Athenian Direct Democracy Benefits: All citizens can debate, make, and vote on laws themselves. Power is divided up between the citizens . No one person has too much power! Problems: Citizens may not have been capable of making laws. Decisions may have been difficult with so many people at the Assembly.

The United States’ Representative Democracy We have a representative democracy or an indirect democracy - NOT a DIRECT DEMOCRACY. Our citizens do not directly make laws in the U.S. Instead citizens elect representatives to make the laws for us. And although we serve on juries, we elect judges to make courtroom decisions also.

Review… Explain why a direct democracy would NOT work in the United States. How does the role of citizens in the U.S.’ democracy differ from that in an Athenian democracy? Describe a benefit and problem of a direct democracy. Describe a benefit and problem of a representative democracy. Why did we learn this information? Rule by the people means that citizens have certain civic duties. What were those required of Greek citizens?