Demos (a)kurios? Agenda power and democratic control in ancient Greece

Abstract

Ancient Greek elite theorists and ordinary democratic practitioners shared a distinctive account of the institutional features of democracy: democracy requires both institutions that empower ordinary citizens to decide matters and the widespread diffusion of agenda-setting powers. In the Politics, Aristotle makes agenda control central to his understanding of what it is to be kurios in the city, to his distinction between oligarchy and democracy, and to his analysis of the preconditions for democratic control of the polis. For democratic citizens, isēgoria (the equal right to speak and make proposals in the assembly) was more than an expression of the democratic commitment to equality. It was also an institutional tool to resist oligarchic domination of the agenda. Institutionalizing isēgoria was part of the Athenian response to a crucial problem for democratic theory and practice: how to ensure that popular participation reliably translates into popular control.

The Urban/Rural Divide in Athenian Political Thought

“…Notwithstanding its important exclusions of women, slaves, and metics, Athenian democracy has long served as a model of a citizen-body bound together by democratic institutions enshrining the political equality of each citizen (Farrar 1988;Fishkin 2009;James [1956James [ ] 1992Turner 1981). Recently, theorists have closely investigated how Athenian institutions such as lotteries (Bouricius 2013), courts (Cammack Forthcoming), and the Council of 500 (Landauer 2021) embodied this political equality. This article complements those studies by considering how attachments to place, home, and customs can strain or sustain democratic institutions.…”

`Representing and Being Represented in Turn’ - A Symposium on Hélène Landemore’s "Open Democracy"

“…Early on, Landemore argues that Rousseau was mistaken: popular sovereignty is not just about taking part in final decisions, but also about controlling the agenda and deliberating on the dialogical model (56-60). Control of the agenda was certainly important to democratic Athenians, and the people retained that control through the assembly's supremacy over the council (see Landauer 2021). But the ancient Greeks put most weight on being a decision maker-the term bouleuesthai, 'to deliberate,' implied coming to a decision (Cammack 2020).…”