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As Noted Above, While There Are Numerous Examples Of Excesses Perpetrated By ...


As noted above, while there are numerous examples of excesses perpetrated by the demos that may be regarded as excessive use of majority will, serious abuses were few (Finley, 1962, 3, 12, 24). Aristotle noted the rigor with which membership in the Council and other positions of authority was determined. (Ath. Pol. 1317b) The combined effect of presidential positions being determined by lot, the restriction of Council membership to men over 30 years of age, and the term limits all combined to generate a flow of persons through the important Athenian offices that logically countered the dangers of a majority coalescing around an individual or an office. Blackwell calculated that in the Athenian eligible population, 10,000 Athenians would be needed to hold office over a 30 year period, a remarkably broad based governmental institution. (Blackwell, 2003, 24)
One may conclude that ‘tyranny of the majority' played a limited role in the advance of Athenian democracy. It is a telling point that after 322 BC, government was once again the preserve of the privileged, as a 2,000 drachma minimum wealth became the Athenian standard to exercise one's franchise. It may be that the Macedonians appreciated the danger to their new influence if broadly based Athenian democracy were to continue.
Bibliography
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Blackwell, Christopher W. ‘Evidence for Athenian Democracy' in C.W. Blackwell, ed., Demos: Classical Athenian Democracy (A. Mahoney and R. Scaife, eds., The Stoa: a consortium for electronic publication in the humanities [www.stoa.org]) edition of January 24, 2003 (Accessed May 14, 2007)
Braund, David (1994) ‘The Luxuries of Athenian Democracy' Greece & Rome, 2nd Ser., Vol. 41, No. 1, pp. 41-48
De Ste Croix, G.E.M The Class Struggle in the Ancient Greek World, Ithaca, NY: Cornell Univ. Press, 1998
Finley, M. I. (1962) ‘Athenian Demagogues' Past and Present 21, pp. 3-24
Finley, M. I. (1983) Politics in the Ancient WorldCambridge: Cambridge University Press,
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Peck, Harry Thurston, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities (1898) http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0062%3Aid%3Djudicial-procedure (Accessed May 14, 2007)
Rhodes P. J. (1972) The Athenian Boule Oxford, Clarendon Press
Tocqueville, Alexis de (1835) Democracy in America, Harvey C. Mansfield and Delba Winthrop eds. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), 235249
Whibley, Leonard (1896) Greek Oligarchies http://www.ancientlibrary.com/oligarchies/index.


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