R.K. Sinclair, “Democracy and Participation in Athens”, Cambridge University Press, 1988, pp. 253.
This book by R.K. Sinclair, Professor of Ancient History at the University of Sydney, is a classic example of painstaking academic research, coherence of argumentation, organisation of presentation and austerity of style.
The central theme of the book is the participation of the citizens of Athens in the life of their city, from the mid-5th century to 332 BC. Sinclair stresses the crucial position which political participation held in Greek political thought and practice. The very concept of the citizen, especially when he belonged to a democratic city-state, was identified with his participation in the exercise of power – in the courts and in the meetings of the assembly of citizens. The functions of ordering, supervising and judging were exercised by the citizens as a body.
The writer looks critically at both the nature and the limitations of this political participation, at its cost and its political consequences, at the methods and the institutions through which the Athenians participated in the public life of the city,
at the material and ethical rewards for political leadership (and at its hazards), and at the political networks of the age. The analysis of certain institutions of the Athenian state which seem to have been unique in ancient Greece, such as the striking out by the courts of resolutions of the assembly on the grounds of unconstitutionality of the motion or the repealing of laws which were against the interests of the state, is a real revelation about the multiple working of political institutions: as political weapons against opponents and also as safety valves to control and release the tension of political dispute.
Sinclair refers to the characteristic case of Aristophon, an Athenian politician who was proud of the fact that he had been brought before the courts 75 times during his political career on the charge of moving illegal motions but had been acquitted on each occasion.
Sinclair is not an unqualified admirer of Athenian democracy. He is well aware of its shortcomings: the various inequalities amongst the citizens from the point of view of free time, wealth and education, which in the nature of things did not permit to all the same degree of dedication to public affairs or the same ease of access to certain posts (e.g. that of strategos) in which knowledge, experience and even family background played a major part in elections. In addition, the system was founded to a considerable extent on the work of slaves and on the fact that only a small part of the population had full civil rights (Sinclair calculates that 30-37% of the population of Athens were slaves, 10-15% were immigrants and 50-55% were citizens with families, leaving only 10-14% as adult males with full political rights). Nonetheless, Sinclair claims that what was amazing about ancient Athens, in contrast not only with other ancient societies but also with modern ones, was the extension of civil rights and the direct political participation of a large number of citizens. This point of view gives one pause for thought, especially when one remembers the date at which slavery was abolished in the ’civilised world’ and that women in Greece did not get the vote until 1956. It is to-this broad participation that the author also attributes the continuity and stability of the system of government, as opposed to others who put forward the view that method of selection for public posts and the one-year term of service of the leaders effectively prevented stability and efficiency.
Lastly, one cannot but admire the extensive bibliography provided – a total of 348 entries, all significant articles and books.