Athens was governed by an assembly of all adult male citizens, which met fortnightly to make decisions.
These assembly meetings were swayed by orators, and often acted in irrational and damaging ways as a result [example: a lot of sailors of sunken ships were drowned after a sea battle at Arginusai when a storm came up. Theramenes was the Admiral charged with recovering them. He got home early before the others, and told the Assembly that the other Admirals had deserted the dying sailors, and their relatives demanded execution of the admirals. This was passed by the Assembly and carried out (one the six executed was Pericles, son of the famous, now deceased Pericles), and cunning Theramenes got off scot free.
The majority of the people was democratically inclined. Socrates was in favour of power to a limited number of the better educated conservatives. If the conservatives (read Socrates clones) had been in the majority, the Assembly would still have been swayed by orators but in a different direction - group-think, a mob, thinking differently but still a mob.
We have tried today to limit this in our democracies by using representative democracy - elected members of parliament who meet and are supposedly not prone to on-the-spot mass surges of opinion and direction. It works partially.
The First Amendment gives every US citizen the right to assembly and to have his voice heard.
This is being done from memory, mind you. May not be completely correct.1 - Freedom of speech, press, religion, assembly and petition2 - Every citizen has the right to bear arms3 - Every citizen has the right to deny quartering soldiers in their homes.4 - ?
There were no elections - it was direct democracy where the people of a city-state assembled every couple of weeks and made decisions which the council implemented between meetings.The assembly was made up of adult males who were citizens of the city-state..
Gives every citizen the right to own guns.
Athens, Greece was one of the birthplaces of democracy. Athenian democracy was a direct democracy in which every citizen voted directly on issues of importance, rather than electing representatives to vote for them.
The quote implies that even if every citizen possessed the wisdom and rationality of Socrates, the collective decision-making process in a large group like the Athenian assembly would still be chaotic and disorderly, lacking in the thoughtfulness and logic of an individual like Socrates. It suggests that group dynamics and emotions can easily override reason and intelligence in a crowd setting.
This quote suggests that even if every Athenian citizen possessed the wisdom and intellect of Socrates, the collective decision-making process in the Athenian assembly would still be chaotic and disorderly. It implies that the nature of crowds and group dynamics can often lead to irrational or tumultuous outcomes, regardless of the individual qualities of the participants.
This quote by Plato suggests that even if all citizens were as wise and just as Socrates, the democratic process in Athens would still lead to chaotic and often irrational outcomes. Despite individual virtues, the collective decision-making of a large group can be influenced by emotions, biases, and lack of understanding.
demorcratic vote
It gave precedence to the idea that every citizen had the right to self determination.
The law-making body of Athens was called the Ekklesia, or the Assembly. The Assembly was composed of any Athenian citizen who cared to show up - that is, any Athens-born male over the age of 18. Women and slaves were not allowed to participate. All classes of society, however, from wealthy landowners to the thetes, or manual laborers, were allowed to participate. Before Pericles' reforms, however, only those wealthy enough to have significant amounts of free time on their hands could show up regularly to meetings. The leader of each meeting of the Assembly were chosen by lottery, with every male citizen over 18 having an equal chance of being drawn. Some of the duties of the Assembly were to vote on laws and decide when to go to war.
Athens had a unique government, a direct democracy. This meant that every Athenian citizen voted on laws and legislation. Sparta was ruled by two kings and a 28 member council of elders.
A direct democracy with enforced participation. ----------------------- Every Athenian male resident was a participant. However, women, slaves, children and foreigners were not included.
The Spartan government operated very differently than the Athenian government. Unlike Athens's democracy, in which every citizen had a vote, Sparta had an oligarchic government (a government ruled by a few people). Also the assembly could only vote on yes-or-no laws, but could not debate issues.
the assembly was open to every male citizen over the age of 30. met to talk about important matter such as rules about citizenship or war and to oppoint generals
The First Amendment gives every US citizen the right to assembly and to have his voice heard.
As part of the ancien Athenian assembly, the Council of 500 established the court cases. A prociding officer was chosen randomly from all citizens at every meating, and the assembly (whoever attended) voted. The cause with the most votes won.