The first was the ekklesia, or Assembly, the sovereign governing body of Athens. Any member of the demos—any one of those 40, adult male citizens—was welcome to attend the meetings of the ekklesia, which were held 40 times per year in a hillside auditorium west of the Acropolis called the Pnyx.
Only about 5, men attended each session of the Assembly; the rest were serving in the army or navy or working to support their families. At the meetings, the ekklesia made decisions about war and foreign policy, wrote and revised laws and approved or condemned the conduct of public officials. Ostracism, in which a citizen could be expelled from the Athenian city-state for 10 years, was among the powers of the ekklesia. The group made decisions by simple majority vote.
The second important institution was the boule, or Council of Five Hundred. The boule was a group of men, 50 from each of ten Athenian tribes, who served on the Council for one year. Unlike the ekklesia, the boule met every day and did most of the hands-on work of governance.
It supervised government workers and was in charge of things like navy ships triremes and army horses. It dealt with ambassadors and representatives from other city-states. Its main function was to decide what matters would come before the ekklesia. In this way, the members of the boule dictated how the entire democracy would work.
Positions on the boule were chosen by lot and not by election. This was because, in theory, a random lottery was more democratic than an election: pure chance, after all, could not be influenced by things like money or popularity. The lottery system also prevented the establishment of a permanent class of civil servants who might be tempted to use the government to advance or enrich themselves. However, historians argue that selection to the boule was not always just a matter of chance.
They note that wealthy and influential people—and their relatives—served on the Council much more frequently than would be likely in a truly random lottery. The third important institution was the popular courts, or dikasteria. Every day, more than jurors were chosen by lot from a pool of male citizens older than There were no police in Athens, so it was the demos themselves who brought court cases, argued for the prosecution and the defense and delivered verdicts and sentences by majority rule.
There were also no rules about what kinds of cases could be prosecuted or what could and could not be said at trial, and so Athenian citizens frequently used the dikasteria to punish or embarrass their enemies. Jurors were paid a wage for their work, so that the job could be accessible to everyone and not just the wealthy but, since the wage was less than what the average worker earned in a day, the typical juror was an elderly retiree.
However, the same consideration for jurisprudence that brings these scholars together in turn creates the widest divergence between the American and European experiences with direct democracy and provides a critical conceptual framework in which to place the experiences of the United States, and in particular of California, that are presented in this volume.
Twenty-four states plus the District of Columbia authorize ballot initiatives that allow citizens to vote on law propositions or constitutional amendments, the texts of which may be written by the state legislatures, or in some states by any group or individual.
Other states allow the legislature to vote on texts proposed by citizens. In California, a further distinction is drawn between initiatives, written and placed on the ballot by the state assembly, and propositions, which citizens generate directly. Finally, the recall allows citizens to vote to remove an elected official from office before the end of his or her term. A petition, completed through the collection of citizen signatures, the required number of which varies from state to state, is necessary for various ballot initiatives, referenda, or recall elections to come before voters.
In California for instance, not only has direct democracy existed at the state level since , but at the county level since , and at the city level beginning in when the northern California cities of San Francisco and Vallejo were the first in the state to adopt initiative rights. Nonetheless, six initiatives have already been proposed with the support of over one million citizens in the European Union and are awaiting a structure through which they can be presented to voters Bertrand.
In some nations, such as Italy and Switzerland, the referendum is a regular part of the democratic process. In Italy, the popular referendum was inscribed in the constitution, but the legal structure required to put referenda into place was only adopted in Laffaille. Switzerland is the European nation the most often associated with direct democracy, and since its inclusion in the constitution, has had a long tradition of citizen proposed initiatives and government proposed referenda, as well as an almost never used recall Giraux.
In contrast, while the French constitution of recognizes the principle of the referendum, government sponsored referenda are tightly hedged with restrictions and have remained rare. Since , French voters have the right to initiate referenda on the local level, but there is no existing mechanism by which voters can actually do so, thus the citizen-generated referendum remains more constitutional theory than practice Dubreuil.
The Swiss are asked to vote very regularly about four times a year , on local, canton-wide, or national referenda with highly varied content, but the complexity of the texts on which to vote on have encouraged increasingly low voter turn-outs. In contrast, the French system emphasizes representative government as the most legitimate vehicle for democracy, leading to high voter participation in elections but little citizen access to decision-making.
The Swiss model is presented as one that functions relatively well, in which citizens rather than pressure groups propose referenda, and in which in case of the passage of texts deemed abusive, the Swiss parliament can propose laws to modify or even counter them.
This is but to be expected, given the tremendous differences in history, political culture, and economic context in these divergence places located on two continents.
Yet, to paraphrase Pierre Nora, the essential task of the intellectual is to demonstrate the complexity of what seems simple and the simplicity of what seems complex. From such diversity in direct democracy a relatively simple distinction between the American and European cases seems to emerge: that of the extent to which the influence of money has intruded into the political process.
Constitution, in particular its First Amendment, along with the phenomenon of American constitutionalism, that has led to maintained public support for the Constitution-anchored political system, even as it seems to move considerably away from its Early Republic and Jacksonian-era origins. In France, campaign advertising is tightly regulated. The only mail voters receive is an official platform statement of each party sent together at a specified time in a single, unmarked brown paper envelope.
In contrast to the plethora of political billboards in the United States, in France only official campaign posters, with strict guidelines as to their size and the amount of text and image allowed, are displayed on official bulletin boards near each election site. Ancient Greek politics, philosophy, art and scientific achievements greatly influenced Western civilizations today.
One example of their legacy is the Olympic Games. Use the videos, media, reference materials, and other resources in this collection to teach about ancient Greece, its role in modern-day democracy, and civic engagement.
Learn how democracy in the United States is different from that of the ancient Greeks. The United States has a complex government system. One important tenet of this system is democracy, in which the ultimate power rests with the people. In the case of the United States, that power is exercised indirectly, through elected representatives.
Although the U. The Greeks are often credited with pioneering a democratic government that went on to influence the structure of the United States. Read this article that describes how elements of ancient Greek democracy heavily influenced the figures that designed the United States government.
Citizenship is the status of being a citizen, belonging to a nation, and having the associated rights and responsibilities. Join our community of educators and receive the latest information on National Geographic's resources for you and your students.
Skip to content. Twitter Facebook Pinterest Google Classroom. Encyclopedic Entry Vocabulary. Media Credits The audio, illustrations, photos, and videos are credited beneath the media asset, except for promotional images, which generally link to another page that contains the media credit.
Media If a media asset is downloadable, a download button appears in the corner of the media viewer. Text Text on this page is printable and can be used according to our Terms of Service.
Interactives Any interactives on this page can only be played while you are visiting our website. Related Resources. Ancient Greece.
0コメント