Despite the learning opportunities offered by civil society in democratic schools, teacher-student conversations in many classrooms, even those that claim to be democratic, tend to follow an “initiation-response-assessment” model where teachers ask questions, students answer, and teachers evaluate the accuracy of answers (Thornberg, 2010). Such interactions do not have the open conversational exchange of true democratic discourse, which frightens students or makes them openly cynical about the idea of democracy in schools or in society at large. In 561 BC. The nascent democracy was overthrown by the tyrant Peisistratos, but restored after the expulsion of his son Hippias in 510. Cleisthenes adopted reforms in 508 and 507 BC. J.-C. who undermined the domination of aristocratic families and linked every Athenian to the domination of the city. Cleisthenes formally identified the free inhabitants of Attica as citizens of Athens, giving them power and a role in a sense of civic solidarity. [15] He did this by making traditional tribes politically irrelevant and introducing ten new tribes, each composed of about three Trittyes (geographical divisions), each composed of several Demes (additional subdivisions). Any male citizen over the age of 18 had to be registered in his Deme. [16] Sometimes imperialist democracy acted with extreme brutality, as in the decision to execute the entire male population of Melos and sell their wives and children simply because they refused to become subjects of Athens.
Ordinary people were numerically dominant in the navy, which they used to pursue their own interests in the form of work as rowers and in the hundreds of foreign administrative posts. In addition, they used the revenues of the empire to finance the payment of the maintenance of the offices. This is the position set out in the well-known anti-democratic pamphlet, whose anonymous author is often called the old oligarch. This author (also called Pseudo-Xenophon) produced several critical commentaries on democracy, such as:[82] Athenian democracy developed around the 6th century BC in the Greek city-state (known as Polis) Athens, which included the city of Athens and the surrounding region of Attica. Although Athens is the most famous ancient Greek democratic city-state, it was not the only one, nor the first; Several other city-states adopted similar democratic constitutions before Athens. [1] [2] At the end of the 4th century BC. J.-C., up to half of the more than a thousand existing Greek city-states could have been democracies. [3] For a short time, Thebes was the first power in the region, its position was maintained in part by the Holy Gang, an elite fighting force composed of pairs of male homosexual lovers who defeated the armies of Athens and Sparta between 382 and 335 BC. Before the band was completely defeated in 338 BC. Through the forces of the Macedonian king Philip II and his son Alexander the Great, Philip became the ruler of Greece, thus ending the era of Athenian democracy.
You can learn more in the book The Sacred Band: Three Hundred Theban Lovers Fighting to Save Greek Freedom by James Romm (2021). Specific issues discussed in the Assembly included the decision of military and financial judges, the organisation and maintenance of food supplies, the adoption of laws and political processes, the decision whether or not to send envoys, the decision whether or not to sign contracts, the vote on the purchase or expenditure of funds, and the debate on military affairs. The Assembly could also vote to banish from Athens any citizen who had become too powerful and dangerous for the Polis. In this case, there was a secret ballot in which voters wrote a name on a piece of broken pottery (Ostrakon). An important element in the debates was freedom of expression (parrhēsia), which has become perhaps the most precious privilege of the citizen. After appropriate discussion, temporary or specific decrees (psēphismata) were adopted and laws (nomoi) were defined. The Assembly also ensured that decisions were implemented and that staff members performed their duties properly. Some Athenian citizens were much more active than others, but the large number needed to function the system testifies to a direct participation among those entitled to it that far exceeded any democracy today.
[25] Athenian citizens had to descend from citizens; After the reforms of Pericles and Cimon in 450 BC. Only those who descended from two Athenian parents could claim citizenship. [31] Although the law was not retroactive, five years later, when a free donation of grain arrived from the Egyptian king to be distributed to all citizens, many “illegitimate” citizens were removed from the registers. [32] Cleisthenes changed Athenian democracy because it redefined what it meant to be a citizen, thus removing the influence of traditional clan groups.