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What did democracy really mean in Athens? - Melissa Schwartzberg

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    Hey, congratulations!
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    You've just won the lottery,
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    only the prize isn't cash
    or a luxury cruise.
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    It's a position in your country's
    national legislature.
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    And you aren't the only lucky winner.
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    All of your fellow lawmakers
    were chosen in the same way.
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    This might strike you as a strange
    way to run a government,
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    let alone a democracy.
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    Elections are the epitome
    of democracy, right?
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    Well, the ancient Athenians
    who coined the word had another view.
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    In fact, elections only played
    a small role in Athenian democracy,
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    with most offices filled by random lottery
    from a pool of citizen volunteers.
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    Unlike the representative
    democracies common today,
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    where voters elect leaders to make laws
    and decisions on their behalf,
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    5th Century BC Athens was
    a direct democracy
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    that encouraged wide participation
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    through the principle of ho boulomenos,
    or anyone who wishes.
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    This meant that any of its approximately
    30,000 eligible citizens
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    could attend the ecclesia,
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    a general assembly meeting
    several times a month.
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    In principle, any of the 6,000 or so
    who showed up at each session
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    had the right to address
    their fellow citizens,
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    propose a law,
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    or bring a public lawsuit.
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    Of course, a crowd of 6,000 people
    trying to speak at the same time
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    would not have made
    for effective government.
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    So the Athenian system also relied on
    a 500 member governing council
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    called the Boule,
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    to set the agenda
    and evaluate proposals,
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    in addition to hundreds of jurors
    and magistrates to handle legal matters.
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    Rather than being elected or appointed,
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    the people in these positions
    were chosen by lot.
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    This process of randomized selection
    is know as sortition.
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    The only positions filled by elections
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    were those recognized
    as requiring expertise,
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    such as generals.
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    But these were considered aristocratic,
    meaning rule by the best,
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    as opposed to democracies,
    rule by the many.
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    How did this system come to be?
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    Well, democracy arose in Athens after long
    periods of social and political tension
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    marked by conflict among nobles.
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    Powers once restricted to elites,
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    such as speaking in the assembly
    and having their votes counted,
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    were expanded to ordinary citizens.
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    And the ability of ordinary citizens
    to perform these tasks
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    adequately became a central feature
    of the democratice ideology of Athens.
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    Rather than a privilege,
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    civic participation
    was the duty of all citizens,
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    with sortition and strict term limits
    preventing governing classes
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    or political parties from forming.
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    By 21st century standards,
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    Athenian rule by the many
    excluded an awful lot of people.
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    Women, slaves and foreigners
    were denied full citizenship,
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    and when we filter out
    those too young to serve,
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    the pool of eligible Athenians drops
    to only 10-20% of the overall population.
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    Some ancient philosophers,
    including Plato,
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    disparaged this form of democracy
    as being anarchic and run by fools.
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    But today the word
    has such positive associations,
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    that vastly different regimes
    claim to embody it.
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    At the same time, some share Plato's
    skepticism about the wisdom of crowds.
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    Many modern democracies
    reconcile this conflict
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    by having citizens elect
    those they consider qualified
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    to legislate on their behalf.
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    But this poses its own problems,
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    including the influence of wealth,
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    and the emergence
    of professional politicians
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    with different interests
    than their constituents.
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    Could reviving election by lottery
    lead to more effective government
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    through a more diverse and representative
    group of legislatures?
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    Or does modern political office,
    like Athenian military command,
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    require specialized knowledge and skills?
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    You probably shouldn't hold your breath
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    to win a spot
    in your country's government.
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    But depending on where you live,
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    you may still be selected
    to participate in a jury,
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    a citizens' assembly,
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    or a deliberative poll,
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    all examples of how the democratic
    principle behind sortition
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    still survives today.
Title:
What did democracy really mean in Athens? - Melissa Schwartzberg
Description:

View full lesson: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/what-did-democracy-really-mean-in-athens-melissa-schwartzberg

While we might consider elections to be the cornerstone of democracy, the Athenians who coined the term actually employed a lottery system to choose most of their politicians. Melissa Schwartzberg describes the ins and outs of the Athenian democracy, and addresses some ways in which a lottery system might benefit us today.

Lesson by Melissa Schwartzberg, animation by TED-Ed.

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Video Language:
English
Team:
closed TED
Project:
TED-Ed
Duration:
04:52

English subtitles

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