With saw ctoria of non-owners in Athens the word "democracy" took on new meaning. Before "the power of the poorer majority" was understood only by contrast with the aristocracy and the small group of the rich. In this sense, the constitution of Cleisthenes, which sanctioned the political supremacy of the middle classes, but also guaranteed to the poorest voting rights in the popular assembly, was also a democracy. From the 461, however, the Athenians, and especially the Greeks advanced ideas conceived as a true democracy only political system capable of effectively guaranteeing the majority of the poor exercise of power. The political regime in which the middle class in power was called, rather, since then, the "minority rule", ie "oligarchy." No doubt because it became impossible to hide the real power of the middle class under the democratic fiction general voting rights, because the masses had matured and their class consciousness. Consequently, if he wanted to restore the system political force in Athens during the time of Cleisthenes, Themistocles and Aristides, this could not be achieved if not through violent repression of non-owners and an express limitation of voting rights.
Arthur Rosenberg, Democracy and class struggle in ancient , El Viejo Topo, 2006, pp.92-93.
0 comments:
Post a Comment