ABSTRACT
Freedom goes hand in hand with oppression. Only the threat of oppression makes freedom worth mentioning. More than that, only oppression sustains it, it is built into the very structures which are held to guarantee it. The structures of the classical Athenian constitution were laid down primarily in the reforms of Cleisthenes at the end of the sixth century. This structure enforced widespread active participation by a large percentage of the Athenian citizen body. About 20,000 Athenian citizens were required to ensure that the Athenian Council could be filled from citizens serving only once in a lifetime. High levels of participation in the Council, and a people's assembly that insisted on taking all major decisions, went together with popular lawcourts. Modern democracies take voting to be a right, part of the right to self-determination. But Athenian democracy demanded more equality than simply the possession of a 'minimum kit' in the form of a common sense of justice and shame.
