July 10th, 2007

Athenian democracy

Posted by Bridie at 12:05 pm

Just got back from an incredible trip to Greece, and besides feeling generally recharged (wish Americans could embrace the concept of siestas!), it was fascinating to walk through the ancient agora in Athens and think for a moment about what it must have been like to participate in politics back then. How revolutionary this concept of giving citizens a direct vote on every issue and piece of legislation must have been. (Of course, their definition of “citizenship” would have excluded me and many… but for the time, it was revolutionarily inclusive).
Can we even imagine that level of civic involvement? Of course, direct democracy could never work on our massive scale, but I found it inspiring to think that voters were that involved in and impassioned about their own governance.
Sure puts our voter turnout to shame.

Posted in General news