Democracy

The story tells us, that democracy was born in hellas, the antique greek. And we are told that the modern form of democracy is the most sophisticated and fairest form of government in the world.

Therefore we have to understand the social system of hellas, especially in Athens which was the biggest city in hellenic era and where it is told, that the democratic system was born.

We have to go back to the years about 600 before Jesus Christ (bc).

In 640 bc a man named Solon was born.

He was one of the very powerful archons in athens, one can say he was part of the elite. And he renewed the political system by cutting the rights of the aristocratic class. With this he gave to the free people the right to take part in the moot.

This system, which was allready more just to the people of Athens, got the next step of evolution by Kleisthenes (570 - 506 bc). He introduced a new constitution.

The homeland of Athens was separated in 10 regions, called phyles. Each phylos consisted out of one part of the town itself, one part of the coastline and one part of inner land.
The smallest unit of self-government was named "deme" - you will find it in the word "demo - cracy". It consisted of free people.
Each deme proposed men out of their community for the council. The phylii decided per hazard which one was taken for the council of 500, 50 men for each phylos.

Out of the 500 men 50 were chosen to govern the nation. These represantitives stayed in position for only one tenth of a year. So there was a rolling system which was made to provide that some of them took advantage of their position.

This is the story of the democracy in Athens in short.

By the way, the other part of the word demo- cracy, Kratein, stands for administration, management, government.

Deme = smallest unit of self-government, free people
Kratein = government

Now we can compare the antique system with our new one and consider if the new one is more or less efficient and fair.

A) In our time adults from 18 years on have the right to vote in their country.
In Athens only the free people had the right to vote. A numerous number of citizens were slaves, they were unfree. Also without rights or with only weak rights were women, even when adult or / and married. They couldn´t vote either.

1:0 for the modern democracy

B) The free people had the possibility for self-government, what was called the deme. Only for affairs which touched the national security or the trade with other nations, the highest council decided for all people.
Our local-authority also has the right for self-government, but in real 90% of the laws and directives are coming from above. This is much more than in former times.

1:1 - egalité

C) The deme proposed different people to take part in the council of the 500. Some were taken per hazard. Taken that there was no corruption nobody could influence whether he was taken or not. Each phylos sent 50 men to the high council.

In germany only the parties send people to the government. So if you think you´re intelligent enough for this business you have to make carreer in the system of parties. Better for your carreer would be your talent to intrigate. And this will mean that there is manipulation from the beginning to the end.

1 : 2 for the former democracy

D) Those who had to govern the nation only stood for 36 days in position. It was a non-stoppable rolling system to provide that some of them took advantages.

In our days not only they stay for a legislative period which lasts a least 4 years, but also they can be reelected several times. Ergo, some of our deputies stay in position for decades. And of course they take advantage of their position. See Gerhard Schröder, who was chanceler and is now CEO at Rosneft or Daniel Bahr who was minister for health and is now Upper-Manager at Allianz.

1:3 for the former democracy

The winner is:

The democracy of Athens!

To get to the sophisticated system of the democracy in former Athens we have to reform our democratic system; it would be like a revolution.