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This Point Is Even More Pronounced In The Case Of The Council, As Referenced ...

This point is even more pronounced in the case of the Council, as referenced below.
The most salient feature in the Assembly is captured in the opening words proclaimed by its Herald at the commencement of each sitting ‘Who wishes to speak?' While there are noted examples from the Athenian democratic experience where this rule was not entirely observed, or where oligarchs in various forms endeavoured to usurp the power of the demos, (Whibly, 1896, c.21), the assembly not only permitted but encouraged free expression. It is submitted that the demos would prove to be a most difficult instrument to subvert to either tyrannical or elite faction power.
The structure of the Council mirrored the desire in Athenian government that promoted democratic principles throughout all of the representative institutions. The rule of a one year term in the Council (50 members of each of the 10 tribes, with a limit of two terms in one lifetime), perpetuated change in government, the antithesis of systemic manipulation of the system. The payment from the state to Council members was intended to encourage a breadth of citizen participation among the poorer classes.
The division of judicial authority between the People's Court and the Areopagus is a similar example. The Areopagus had wielded broader powers in Athenian government prior to the institution of democracy; in its retention of a life membership culled from the former archons and its exclusive jurisdiction over serious crime created a bulwark against any democratic excesses; the Areopagus was a non-democratic institution that accentuated the otherwise democratic thrust of Athenian law and government.
In this skeletal fashion, the government and legal structures as outlined above are so resolutely democratic as to be impervious to critical comment. Why did Pseudo-Xenophon and, to a lesser extent Aristotle find significant fault with democracy?
The Old Oligarch equated democracy to mob rule (LACTOR 2, para 2); he expounded with considerable heat his disdain for the moral character of the Athenians, where the slave classes failed to show appropriate respect for the citizens and were the city was one of ‘uncontrolled wantonness' (4,6,9)
However, through a careful reading of this work, making appropriate allowances for the nuances of meanings that may be distorted by time or translation, it seems clear that the Old Oligarch is far more troubled by the fear that the best people are not in a position of making the best decisions for Athens than he is concerned about democracy per se. The Old Oligarch's position is built upon the premise that the wealthy in society will be the educated members; these are by his definition the ‘finest and the cleverest', ( 6 ) whose rightful position of leadership democracy has usurped.


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