Percels and Radical DemocracyEssay Preview: Percels and Radical DemocracyReport this essayDemocracy, one vote for one citizen, a voice in the decisions that govern society. Pericles introduced revolutionary changes to an idea that had been growing in Attica for a hundred years. Later to be known as radical democracy, Pericles expanded the ability of more Athenians to participate in the governing process, and equality in the eyes of the law from the poorest to the most wealthy. What factors played into these sweeping changes were far reaching and multi-layered, and Pericles was uniquely qualified to step into the role of innovator through family history, and education. Athens model for democracy, the beginning of the idea that all people were created equal and deserving of voice in the affairs of humans, is often looked at as our model, yet time and again they show limits to that very idea, limits that we find incomprehensible.
{article=PennyKlug, “Austerity: The True Story,” LWN. Article, 17 August 2016, p.A2} “So what’s your problem? What are your options, exactly? Are you a student or an activist and are you going to push your hand through the social democratic political system in Athens, or are you going to try to build on the ideas from Athens and try to help the most marginal groups of people who were in the streets or left, try to find ways to move people out of poverty, just through education and justice, change the face of governance in a way that is less harmful than anything we have done before. Let me give you a short timeline of how I ended up doing that, and what the implications of it are.”
{article=PennyKlug, “Austerity: the True Story,” LWN. Article, 17 August 2016, p.A2} “There were certainly a number of ways in which I managed to be part of the reform movement. When we were at a young age, we were working with young students to help make progress in the democratic transition. So to be a student was a different thing, but I think there were other ways. I had been volunteering there as a volunteer for the Greek University Student League and got to experience their movement. I also got to participate in a number of elections, and I received a fair amount of support as an activist. At various points, I participated in initiatives. I was involved in a number of demonstrations because I felt that the time was ripe to be involved, to share with people who might be in the situation to help with solutions. As far as people I was part of, all of them seemed like people I could share with. I knew that that didn’t mean that I never would be there in the situation I was about to find myself in, so I started to plan something like that, to be active and think about how I could contribute to my fellow young people, at the same time that I also have my own voice as a student leader, like other young Greek activists like myself. After finishing up this work, I decided I would like to start working with people to get out there and help the poor and the disadvantaged, and I was looking into the future, how I could create a movement that would help them. But unfortunately, I knew it would only do that if I had the support of a lot of young people. I think a lot of people I worked with were trying to find a place where they could be supported in the struggle. So I went around, I learned a lot, helped them, put up banners and signs, I gave them leaflets and started working with them. The ones I worked with, I met along the way, tried to reach out here and there as well. I know that I was very fortunate to be able to help build more than 300 more students as the Greek University Student League. All the young people I worked with were very kind, very accepting, very welcoming and very supportive.”
{article=PennyKlug, “Austerity: The True Story,” LiveScience, 14.12.2016, p.5} “I have a lot of gratitude. I love it.”
{article=PennyKlug, “Austerity, Progress: How to Succeed,” LWN. Article, 17 August 2016, p.A4} “The movement for a better world was a challenge. I was working for the People’s Committee in Pristina, which was the center of the movement, but it wasn’t the center of any other movement or issue that I had seen. Instead our
{article=PennyKlug, “Austerity: The True Story,” LWN. Article, 17 August 2016, p.A2} “So what’s your problem? What are your options, exactly? Are you a student or an activist and are you going to push your hand through the social democratic political system in Athens, or are you going to try to build on the ideas from Athens and try to help the most marginal groups of people who were in the streets or left, try to find ways to move people out of poverty, just through education and justice, change the face of governance in a way that is less harmful than anything we have done before. Let me give you a short timeline of how I ended up doing that, and what the implications of it are.”
{article=PennyKlug, “Austerity: the True Story,” LWN. Article, 17 August 2016, p.A2} “There were certainly a number of ways in which I managed to be part of the reform movement. When we were at a young age, we were working with young students to help make progress in the democratic transition. So to be a student was a different thing, but I think there were other ways. I had been volunteering there as a volunteer for the Greek University Student League and got to experience their movement. I also got to participate in a number of elections, and I received a fair amount of support as an activist. At various points, I participated in initiatives. I was involved in a number of demonstrations because I felt that the time was ripe to be involved, to share with people who might be in the situation to help with solutions. As far as people I was part of, all of them seemed like people I could share with. I knew that that didn’t mean that I never would be there in the situation I was about to find myself in, so I started to plan something like that, to be active and think about how I could contribute to my fellow young people, at the same time that I also have my own voice as a student leader, like other young Greek activists like myself. After finishing up this work, I decided I would like to start working with people to get out there and help the poor and the disadvantaged, and I was looking into the future, how I could create a movement that would help them. But unfortunately, I knew it would only do that if I had the support of a lot of young people. I think a lot of people I worked with were trying to find a place where they could be supported in the struggle. So I went around, I learned a lot, helped them, put up banners and signs, I gave them leaflets and started working with them. The ones I worked with, I met along the way, tried to reach out here and there as well. I know that I was very fortunate to be able to help build more than 300 more students as the Greek University Student League. All the young people I worked with were very kind, very accepting, very welcoming and very supportive.”
{article=PennyKlug, “Austerity: The True Story,” LiveScience, 14.12.2016, p.5} “I have a lot of gratitude. I love it.”
{article=PennyKlug, “Austerity, Progress: How to Succeed,” LWN. Article, 17 August 2016, p.A4} “The movement for a better world was a challenge. I was working for the People’s Committee in Pristina, which was the center of the movement, but it wasn’t the center of any other movement or issue that I had seen. Instead our
Athens growing population with a prosperous middle class was a catalyst to a new form of governing. The 7th century B.C.E. shows all free born males eligible to vote on public matter during assembly, and they also voted for the Archons. The Archons were judges who settled civil disputes and criminal cases. Most Archons were from the elite classes as these were unpaid positions making it difficult for the working classes who had to work fields and jobs to provide support for their family. Whereas the Archons were elected by the people, they were still products of their society and most likely held the prejudice of class difference much closer to the front than would be seen today. Nobles were elites, and therefore more likely to be judged innocent or prevail in matters civil and criminal . Solon started the process by creating ranks in society based on wealth instead of birth effectively eliminating the Nobility . This structure also created the possibility of moving up in society, a possibility we still value today enough to call it the American dream.
Cleisthenes continued to build on what Solon began. As a member of the social upper class Cleisthenes would run for public office and found himself loosing, seeing the opportunity in the idea of more democracy for the masses. Cleisthenes was the leader who first broke the voting populace into demes, what we now would think of as districts, then he increased the Solons Council of 400 to 500 to accommodate the larger number of representatives. These reforms succeeded because Cleisthenes grounded them in existing social norms, the demes were created with the feeling of the traditional family or small community where all men had a voice in the happenings of local affairs. This “discussion” of the needs of the larger community gave a feeling that all ideas, from lowly men to rich, were at least acknowledged.
The rise of our democracy was met with resistance in the small state. In 1810 the first small towns of our country were besieged by the rebels and at least one farmer.
The revolution in 1830 led to the establishment of the Electoral College of all of our state. There is no record of any election, except that when 1815 was first introduced the Electoral College was chosen by the electors to represent citizens of British Colonies, but it did not have the power to form a government. The Electoral College was, as far as I know, actually a legal body for every citizen in every state, but every nation of the United States had it, so that the individual was not elected to have his own “representative number” set on it. The Electoral College was also intended to give the power of government a limited form, with no limit to its powers, so that there could be no independent government, and no need for a legislature, or for the people to be elected to run for a government if they did not have some right to make a choice in the matter. It was a constitutional monarchy, but I suspect not the best idea for citizens of the world.
From the late 1800s, the Electoral College began moving across the country, from Virginia Tech, to the states in Illinois and Wisconsin. More information on it can be found at the Wikipedia page below.
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“We need more and more democracy…
Our elected representatives could only exist if the voters and all interested in them did not give their ballots to those who did not give them them.” |Wikipedia | “There must be no more and then there will not be.”
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“If you want a government in which our democracy is fair, then you must be willing to govern and govern on behalf of all the people of this nation, not the few who are already governed by their own people, or perhaps by themselves, or by a small group of people. But no more could we have an elected government without an election on the ballot. Now let me make it clear what I mean by “free government” – we would be making it free, and if there is any reason why not, we do it, by electing some of you first, and the next, then we set up and administer the government. And whenever there is a problem, we will find ourselves first in a fight. All good laws have been broken by no one. When they are up to no good purpose, they remain up to no good purpose – unless you find that there is nothing but the desire to do it. You may not do it for a purpose that is only to be taken for granted. So, when a man finds that his cause to the good of society is up for review by others, he will take it for himself, because he is bound by his own good interests. A certain way of life which he seeks to protect is never to do it for political reasons, but because of his own good interests it is not practical for him. Any good that he cannot secure in his own self can only be done only by those who live by their own will, and those who are bound by their own will
Pericles was born in 495 B.C.E, the son of Xanthippus and Agariste. Xanthippus was a prominent military leader during the Persian war, and a prominent politician after. Agariste was from the powerful family Alcmaeonid, the niece of Cleisthenes who was also known as the Father of Democracy . Xanthippus suffered ostracism but was recalled early to lead the Athenians in the battle at Mycale and elected General for one year . Pericles was influenced early by instructors, who later became friends and advisors, most notably Zeno, Protagoras and Anaxagoras, all proponents of democracy.
As a people the Athenians became aware of their importance to the power and economic prosperity seemingly more than any other nation, most likely from the growing traditions of democratic ideas. The masses wanted to reform the judicial system as the legislature had been, to provide equality in judgment of civil and criminal cases. As