ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on a detailed comparison and contrast between citizenship and voting as they were practiced and felt and thought in two different, Greek poleis – Sparta and Athens. It considers the political culture of ancient Sparta, because that is the city which – arguably – invented the Greek citizen ideal, or at least gave a first definition of it in practice. The qualifications laid down for gaining and holding Spartan citizenship are as interesting as the ways in which it was exercised politically. The qualifications were uniquely Spartan, but in cultural terms they were also thoroughly Greek. Ancient Greek democracy came in various forms, varying in degree of popular empowerment, and differing from polis to polis; but it was always direct democracy. It lacked a notion of representation, and it performed the rituals of voting face to face, in a system of government by mass meeting or in open law court.
