ABSTRACT
The wellspring of modern democracy is commonly identified with Classical Greece, and to a lesser extent Classical Rome. 1 In was the Athenians who coined the word demokratia (demos = the people, kratos = to rule) to describe the form of government that emerged there and elsewhere in ancient Greece in the sixth century BCE. Their belief was that the state existed to benefit the common good, and because a life well lived was one lived in accordance with the civic virtues, the well-being of the state and its citizens were coextensive. At the centre of the political system was an assembly in which all citizens were entitled to particip- ate and take decisions, and as the citizens were rarely unanimous in their views, ‘rule by the people’ corresponded in practice to ‘majority rule’. A small number of key public officials (such as generals) were elected to office, but the majority were appointed by ballot. Thus it was that Athens enshrined key aspects of what we would identify as a democratic system in modern times: equality among cit- izens, representation through election or agreed procedure, and government of the people by their consent. On the other hand universal suffrage was not part of the Athenian concept, as neither women, nor slaves, nor the residents of other Greek cities, were allowed participation in public affairs. Such early democra- cies were direct democracies, as the decisions of state were taken directly by the body of citizens as a whole. It was a form of government that proved efficacious for small Greek city states, and one which lasted over two hundred years until the Aegean peninsula was overrun by the Macedonians in late fourth century BCE.
