̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge - Paul Cartledge

Opinion: Ancient Greeks would not recognise our ‘democracy’ – they’d see an ‘oligarchy’

Anonymous — Fri, 03 Jun 2016 10:20:30 +0000

We owe to the ancient Greeks much, if not most of our own current political vocabulary. All the way from anarchy and democracy to politics itself. But their politics and ours are very different beasts. To an ancient Greek democrat (of any stripe), all our modern democratic systems would count as “oligarchy”. By that I mean the rule of and by – if not necessarily or expressly for – the few, as opposed to the power or control of the people, or the many (demo-kratia).

That is the case even if – and indeed because – the few happen to be elected to serve by (all) the people. For in ancient Greece elections were considered to be in themselves oligarchic. They systematically favoured the few and, more particularly, the few extremely rich citizens – or “oligarchs”, as we now familiarly call them thanks to Boris Berezhovsky and his kind, who are also known as “plutocrats” or just “fat cats”.

On the other hand, there are some significant commonalities between ancient and modern ways of thinking politically. To both ancient and modern democrats, for example, freedom and equality are of the essence – they are core political values. However, freedom to an ancient Greek democrat didn’t just mean the freedom to participate in the political process but also freedom from legal servitude, from being an actual slave chattel.

Aristotle favoured the democratic model. Jastrow, CC BY

And freedom to participate meant not just the sort of occasional saturnalia that we take to be the key mode of democracy for most of us – a temporary exchange of roles by political masters and slaves come general or local election (or referendum) time. But rather the freedom actually to share political power, to rule on an almost day-to-day basis.

In the fourth century BC(E), the Athenian democratic assembly of 6,000-plus adult male citizens met on average every nine days or so. It was government by mass meeting, but also the equivalent of holding a referendum on major issues every other week.

Equality then and now

Equality today is but a pipe dream at best, at least in socioeconomic terms, when the richest 1% of the world’s population owns as much as the remaining 99% put together. They managed these things a whole lot better in ancient Greece, and especially in the ancient Athenian democracy.

Statistical data are lacking – the ancients were notoriously unbureaucratic and they considered direct personal taxation to be a civic insult. But it’s plausibly been argued that “Classical” (5th-4th century BCE) Greece and especially Classical Athens were more populous and urbanised societies, with a higher proportion of their population living above the level of mere subsistence – and with a more equal distribution of property ownership – than has been the case in Greece at any time since, or indeed than in pretty much any other pre-modern society.

This does not mean that ancient Greece can supply us with a directly transferable example for democratic imitation – we tend to believe formally in the absolute equality of all citizens at any rate as adult voters, regardless of gender, and not to believe in the validity or utility of the legal enslavement of human beings as chattels.

Plutarch: preferred the notion of monarchy. Odysses, CC BY

However, there are a number of ancient democratic notions and techniques that do seem highly attractive: the use of sortition, for instance – a random method of polling by lottery that aimed to produce a representative sample of elected officials. Or the practice of ostracism – which allowed the population to nominate a candidate who had to go into exile for 10 years, thus ending their political career.

And comparison, or rather contrast, of our democracies with those of ancient Greece does serve to highlight what’s been called creeping crypto-oligarchy in our own very different (representative, not direct) democratic systems.

Worst of all possible systems

We are all democrats now, aren’t we? Or are we? Not if we consider the following five flaws variously embedded in all contemporary systems.

Most pertinently at the moment, it was possible for the US and the UK to go to war in Iraq in 2003, even though neither US president George W Bush nor the UK prime minister, Tony Blair, had at any point received the endorsement for that decision from the majority of their own citizens.

Churchill: the worst of all possible systems. Pygar1954, CC BY

Citizens in our “democracies” spend up to one-fifth of their lives governed by a party or candidate other than the party or candidate that most of them voted for at the last election. Moreover, elections are not in fact “free and fair”: they’re nearly invariably won by the side that spends the most money, and thus are more or less corrupted thereby.

When it comes to winning elections, no party has ever come to power without (blatantly self-interested) corporate backing in one shape or another. And, perhaps most damning of all, the vast majority of people are systematically excluded from public decision-making – thanks to vote-skewing, campaign financing and the right of elected representatives simply to ignore with impunity anything that happens in between (local or general) elections.

Democracy in short has changed its meaning from anything like the “people power” of ancient Greece and has seemingly lost its purpose as a reflection let alone realisation of the popular will.

One can well see why Winston Churchill was once moved to describe democracy as the worst of all systems of government – apart from all the rest. But that should be no good reason for us to continue ignoring the widely admitted democratic deficit. Back to the future – with the democrats of ancient Greece.

Paul Cartledge, A.G. Leventis Senior Research Fellow, Clare College, ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge

This article was originally published on ̽��ֱ��Conversation. Read the original article.

̽��ֱ��opinions expressed in this article are those of the individual author(s) and do not represent the views of the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge.

Paul Cartledge (Faculty of Classics) discusses what the ancient Greeks would think of our democracy.

Pablo Escudero

Pericles

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Attribution

On the life (and deaths) of democracy

sjr81 — Thu, 26 May 2016 10:41:25 +0000

Following the history of democracy from its invention in 508 BCE to the 21st century, Democracy: A Life traces the development of political thinking over millennia. It also examines the many sustained attacks on the original notion of Athenian democracy across the intervening centuries which have left it degraded, deformed and largely unrecognisable from its original incarnation.

̽��ֱ��book, published by OUP, traces the grand sweep of democracy in around 500BCE down through the Classical era to its general demise in its original forms about 300BCE.

Thereafter, though the word democracy persisted, it continued only in degraded versions from the Hellenistic era, through late Republican and early Imperial Rome, down to early Byzantium in the sixth century CE. For many centuries after that, from late Antiquity, through the Middle Ages, to the Renaissance, democracy was effectively eclipsed by other forms of government – before enjoying a revival in 17th century England and further renewals in late 18th century North America and France.

“We owe to the ancient Greeks much, if not most, of our own currently political vocabulary – from the words anarchy and democracy to politics itself,” said Cartledge. “But their politics and ours are very different beasts. To an ancient Greek democrat (of any stripe), all our modern democratic systems would count as oligarchy: rule for and by the few.

“Politics is the art of the possible and the art of persuasion – and nowhere was this more evident than in ancient Athens where all but 20 of 700 offices of the Assembly were filled by lottery every year.”

̽��ֱ��Assembly was government by mass meeting, every nine days or so. On the agenda of every principal Assembly meeting were such fundamental issues as relations with the gods, state security and the overseas supply of wheat.

However, the 6,000 or so ordinary members of the Assembly who were able and willing to turn up in central Athens could not decide such profound matters by themselves. At the meeting, they listened in the open air to the arguments and counter arguments of prominent and well-known speakers before a mass vote was taken on a show of hands.

Even with such mass participation, there was still the chance for further scrutiny if sufficient numbers felt an error or crime had been committed in and by the Assembly. People’s jury courts could stymie demagogic self-promotion and offer the chance of delivering a considered second opinion on a measure.

Above all, there was also the ‘Boule’ or Council of 500 – the Assembly’s steering committee and chief administrative body of the state. This annually recruited body, like the annual panel of the 6,000 jurors in the People’s courts, was filled by the use of lottery, not by election. ̽��ֱ��lot was, democrats believed, the democratic way to fill public offices. It was random, gave all qualified male adult citizens an equal chance of selection, and so encouraged them to throw their hats into the ring, to step up to the plate and do their public civic duty.

In essence, Cartledge argues that this truly represented government of the people by the people for the people.

“Ancient Athenians did not have political parties, they thought elections were undemocratic,” he added. “Any male who wished to attend the Assembly could do so, and anyone who wished to have his say could call out and make his voice heard. It was the equivalent of holding a referendum on major issues every other week.”

Cartledge argues that the notion of such equality today is but a pipe dream at best, at least in socioeconomic terms, when the richest 1pc of a country’s population can own more than the remaining 99pc put together.

“Today, our MPs get elected and feel they have to toe the party line. And they are in turn protected by the party system and infrequent elections. There is no way to be held to account after an election – and this is a modern phenomenon. ̽��ֱ��word ostracise comes from ancient Greece where politicians could be physically cast out for ten years if they were felt to be abusing office. If a week is a long time in politics today, you can imagine what a decade in the wilderness would mean.”

While few in number, Cartledge does highlight two modern democratic system where echoes of the Athenian concept of demokratia (demos meaning people and kratos meaning power) can be found.

In Switzerland, at the federal level, changes to the constitution can be proposed by citizens and can only be completed by referendum; and the Swiss populace votes regularly on issues at all levels of the political scale – from the building of a new street to the foreign policy of the country.

Meanwhile, following the 2008 financial crash in Iceland, referenda, assemblies, and a people’s parliament were formed as citizens of the country campaigned to make their voices and views heard by means of mass participation in the country’s new politics.

̽��ֱ��notion of government by referendum is particularly apposite to the United Kingdom of 2016 as the battle lines are drawn, often with crude, crass and alarmist hyperbole from both the Leave and Remain camps, for the EU referendum on June 23.

“ ̽��ֱ��EU referendum will give us an all too brief taste of what it was like in ancient Athens,” added Cartledge. “If it’s a majority of one, then that will be the decision. This system is so rarely used, and so risky, but it’s the nearest thing to trusting the people. It’s an extraordinary thing to trust people who are not experts – but this system existed and lasted for 200 years, and has flourished on and off since.

“Government by referendum suited the Ancient Athenians. Whether it’s a useful add-on to, or a flagrant contradiction of, our democracy – that’s a matter on which we the electorate should have been asked to give our decisive view. But our democracy, being as it is, merely representative – would look like a creeping, crypto-oligarchy to the ancient Greeks – and many today may be coming to a similar conclusion.”

Democracy: A Life is out now.

̽��ֱ��‘life’ of democracy – from its roots in ancient Athens to today’s perverted and ‘creeping, crypto-oligarchies’ – is the subject of a newly-published book by eminent Cambridge classicist Paul Cartledge.

Our democracy would look like a creeping, crypto-oligarchy to the ancient Greeks – and many today may be coming to a similar conclusion.

Paul Cartledge

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Politics debates at the heart of the Cambridge Festival of Ideas

Anonymous — Fri, 18 Sep 2015 10:49:58 +0000

Speakers include the writer Bidisha, Alan Sked, founder and now fiercest critic of UKIP, journalist Peter Hitchens, Professor David Runciman, Professor Paul Cartledge, John Macnicol, one of Europe’s leading academic analysts of old age and ageing, and Russian historian Professor Dominic Lieven.

Bidisha and award-winning journalist Emily Dugan will be in conversation about their new books which focus on the experiences of immigrants and refugees in the UK. Bidisha’s book, Asylum and Exile: the Hidden Voices of London, is the result of a writing residency with refugees and asylum seekers in London. Through their own words and writing, it tells the stories of people who have fled war, violent persecution, poverty or civil unrest in a range of countries, from Syria to the Congo and their experiences in the UK. It shows that though many used to be accountants, teachers, criminologists and composers in their own countries, they are often forced to work illegally in the UK in underpaid, unstable jobs, surviving on a few pounds a day.

Emily Dugan’s book, Finding Home: Real Stories of Migrant Britain, is described as “an honest, unflinching portrait of ordinary people, all immigrants to the United Kingdom, struggling with extraordinary obstacles to find somewhere called home”.

̽��ֱ��Festival will also feature a debate on the rise of the extreme right in Europe. A screening of Andres Veiel’s award-winning film Der Kick [ ̽��ֱ��Kick, 2006] on the murder of a teenager by three neo-Nazi teenagers in East Germany will be followed by a panel discussion on the rise of right-wing violence in Europe. Taking part are Dr Emmanuel Karagiannis, Senior Lecturer of the Defence Studies Department at King’s College London, who specialises in the area of radicalisation and terrorism in Europe and ethnic conflicts in the Caucasus and Central Asia; and from the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge Dr Helen Roche, who specialises in Germany history and Dr Katharina Karcher, whose research interests include protest movements in the former West Germany, political violence and European women’s movements.

Also on the theme of immigration and the future of Europe is the debate Can Europe Keep the Peace? ̽��ֱ��speakers will be Alan Sked, MEP Mary Honeyball, historian Professor Robert Tombs and Montserrat Guibernau, Professor of Politics at Queen Mary ̽��ֱ�� of London and author of the forthcoming book 'Solidarity and Division in the EU'. In another event on Europe, leading commentator Paul Wallace will analyse why the Euro went wrong and if reforms have been sufficient to make it perform better in the future.

Other politics events at the Festival include:

John Macnicol on the effects of neoliberalism on old age and retirement.

A special Festival edition of the respected politics podcast, Election Live! led by Professor David Runciman. It will cover the new Labour leadership, Europe and other issues of the day, reflecting on how much has changed since June and how quickly, and looking at the US elections and what the parallels might be between maverick candidates there and here. ̽��ֱ��podcast will also be taking predictions on the US elections from the panel and the audience.

Can Writers and Artists Ever Be Terrorists? - debate with Professor Anthony Glees, Turkish artist and anti-censorship campaigner Pelin Basaran, Jodie Ginsberg, CEO of Index on Censorship, and Dr Sara Silvestri who specialises in radicalisation.

Professor Dominic Lieven will be discussing his new book, Towards the Flame: Empire, War and the End of Tsarist Russia, which deals with Russia’s disastrous involvement in the First World War and the implications for Europe today.

War, Censorship and Propaganda - a debate with Professor Christopher Andrew, Official Historian of MI5, Professor David Welch, director of the Centre for the Study of Propaganda and War at the ̽��ֱ�� of Kent, Dr Peter Busch from King’s College London on the use of social media for propaganda purposes, and Caroline Wyatt, former defence correspondent at the BBC.

̽��ֱ��Lords Spiritual: Power and Resistance? - a discussion of the role of bishops in the House of Lords with the Rt Reverend Stephen Conway, Bishop of Ely.

Flamenco and the Politics of Resistance: Flashmobs and Immigration in Spain - Matthew Machin-Autenrieth will explore how flamenco has been used as a catalyst for social change, including in 'flash mobs' where dancers and singers have engaged in acts of spontaneous performance in banks and political institutions as a form of anti-capitalist protest and to celebrate issues surrounding immigration and racism.

Greek democracy: ancient and modern – Paul Cartledge, Professor of Ancient Greek History, and political journalist Maria Margaronis will discuss ancient and modern conceptions of democracy and the myths surrounding them both.
People’s power: democracy on three continents and an island - Four drastically different places and four distinct points of view will bring to the table the force of broad cross-cultural comparison to bear on the most urgent problems which haunt democracies around the globe and at home.

Established in 2008, Cambridge Festival of Ideas aims to fuel the public’s interest in arts, humanities and social sciences. ̽��ֱ��events, ranging from talks, debates and film screenings to exhibitions and comedy nights, are held in lecture halls, theatres, museums and galleries around Cambridge. Most of the over 250 events are free.

Speakers include some of the world’s leading thinkers in their fields, including the astronomer Lord Martin Rees, John Macnicol, one of Europe’s leading academic analysts of old age and ageing, philosopher Professor Rae Langton, Professor Christopher Andrew, the Official Historian of Mi5, Russian historian Professor Dominic Lieven and Classics Professor Paul Cartledge. Also speaking are writer and journalist Peter Hitchens, BBC religious affairs correspondent Caroline Wyatt, Jodie Ginsberg, CEO of Index on Censorship, and Professor Alan Sked, founder and former member of UKIP.

̽��ֱ��Festival sponsors and partners are Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� Press, St John’s College, Anglia Ruskin ̽��ֱ��, RAND Europe, Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), Cambridge Live, ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge Museums and Botanic Garden, Arts Council England, Cambridge Junction, British Science Association, Heritage Lottery Fund, Heffers, WOW Festival, Southbank Centre, Collusion, TTP Group, Goethe Institut, Index on Censorship and BBC Cambridgeshire.

Political issues ranging from the future of Europe, the US elections, immigration and how to deal with Islamic extremists will be at the heart of this year’s Cambridge Festival of Ideas which runs from 19th October to 1st November.

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Cambridge heads for Hay

jfp40 — Thu, 10 Apr 2014 09:20:09 +0000

̽��ֱ��Cambridge Series has been running for six years at the prestigious Festival and is part of the ̽��ֱ��’s commitment to public engagement. ̽��ֱ��Festival runs from 22nd May to 1st June and is now open for bookings.

This year's line-up includes Sir John Gurdon who was jointly awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for the discovery that mature cells can be converted to stem cells. He will talk about his pioneering work on cloning.

Other speakers include Dr Ha-Joon Chang on economics, classicist Professor Paul Cartledge on after Thermopylae, Dame Barbara Stocking, former chief executive of Oxfam GB and president of Murray Edwards College, on the challenges for women in the workplace, Professor Chris Dobson and Dr Mary Dobson on Alzheimer's and other plagues, economist Professor Noreena Hertz on smart thinking and Professor Robert Mair on tunnelling into the future of our cities.

Professor Richard Evans, president of Wolfson College, will talk about the history of conspiracy theories, Dr John Swenson-Wright from the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies will ask if North Korea is the perennial crisis state and Dr Robin Hesketh from the Department of Biochemistry will attempt to demystify cancer.

Several of the talks will take the form of a conversation: Professor Simon Blackburn will debate the uses and abuses of self love with journalist Rosie Boycott; novelist and playwright Biyi Bandele, a former Judith E. Wilson Fellow at Churchill College, will be in conversation with Dr Malachi McIntosh from the Department of English about migrant writing; Professor Henrietta Moore, William Wyse Chair of Social Anthropology, will talk about the future of civil activism with Ricken Patel, founding President of Avaaz, the world's largest online activist community; and psychologist Dr Terri Apter will debate how women follow, resist and play with the stereotypes that define them with author and alumna Zoe Strimpel.

Other Cambridge academics speaking at Hay are Professor Stefan Collini discussing higher education’s two cultures - the humanities and science - and historian Professor David Reynolds.

Peter Florence, director of the Hay Festival, said: "Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� nurtures and challenges the world's greatest minds, and offers the deepest understanding of the most intractable problems and the most thrilling opportunities. And for one week a year they bring that thinking to a field in Wales and share it with everyone. That's a wonderful gift."

Nicola Buckley, head of public engagement at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, said: “ ̽��ֱ��Cambridge series is a wonderful way to share fascinating research from the ̽��ֱ�� with the public. ̽��ֱ��Hay Festival draws an international cross-section of people, from policy makers to prospective university students. We have found that Hay audiences are highly interested in the diversity of Cambridge speakers, and ask some great questions. We look forward to another fantastic series of speakers, with talks and debates covering so many areas of research and key ideas emerging from Cambridge, relevant to key issues faced globally today."

For tickets, go to: www.hayfestival.org

A host of Cambridge academics, including Nobel Laureate Sir John Gurdon, will be speaking on subjects ranging from stem cell technology and Alzheimer’s to the future of North Korea and the history of conspiracy theories at this year’s Hay Festival.

Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� nurtures and challenges the world's greatest minds, and offers the deepest understanding of the most intractable problems and the most thrilling opportunities

Peter Florence, Director of Hay Festival

Hay Festival

Night shot at Hay Festival

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Cambridge academics head for Hay

bjb42 — Thu, 31 May 2012 15:00:16 +0000

A series of talks and debates by Cambridge academics on pressing contemporary issues kicks off this week at the Hay Festival.

This year is the 25^th anniversary of the Festival and the fourth year running that the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge has run a series of talks there as part of its commitment to public engagement.

This year's line-up includes Paul Cartledge, A.G. Leventis Professor of Greek Culture, who will be participating in three of the 10 sessions on in the Classics series on Herodotus, the “Father of History”, on Plato and on the aspirations and concepts of civilisation, democracy, drama, virtue, victory, liberty and xenia and what the study of Classics has meant in the wider world.

For the first time, Cambridge academics will take part in a series of debates about contemporary political and social issues, including Europe, democracy and urban violence. Among those taking part in the Europe debate is Professor Robert Tombs who has written a blog on the implications for France and Europe of the election of Francois Hollande as president of France.

Another debate covers the broader cultural implications of current events, with Professor Adrian Poole, Professor Alison Sinclair and Jennifer Wallace discussing the modern meaning of tragedy and literary representation of current events. Other speakers include Professor Susan Golombok on alternative family structures, Professor Martin Jones on the archaeology of food, Carolin Crawford on the birth and death of stars, Dame Patricia Hodgson on media regulation in the shadow of the Leveson Inquiry, Professor David Spiegelhalter on our risk society and Professor Stefan Collini on what universities are for.

Professor Lawrence Sherman will talk about how science is transforming policing in a session entitled “ ̽��ֱ��new police knowledge”. ̽��ֱ��session will be introduced by Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Constabulary Sir Denis O’Connor.

Brendan Burchell, senior lecturer in the Sociology Department, will be in conversation with Julia Hobsbawm, honorary visiting professor in networking at Cass Business School, about the future of work.

Other Cambridge academics speaking at Hay are Professor John Thompson, Professor Robert Macfarlane, Professor Martin Rees, Professor John Barrow, Dr Julian Allwood and Professor David MacKay.

Nicola Buckley, head of public engagement at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge, said: “ ̽��ֱ��Cambridge series is a wonderful way to get the fascinating research being done at the ̽��ֱ�� out to the public. ̽��ֱ��Hay Festival draws an international cross-section of people, from policy makers to prospective university students. It is a fantastic platform for our research and this year’s debates aim to highlight the broad range of what we do at the ̽��ֱ�� and its relevance to the key issues we face today.”

Peter Florence, director of the Hay Festival, said: “What’s thrilling about this year’s series is how exacting it is about society. ̽��ֱ��Cambridge experts cut through the political and media spin on big issues and look at them with real attention and intellectual rigour - from policing to European integration and 21st century family structure and risk. It’s a timely reminder about the value of authority; an aspiration that ‘policy’ might be formed by the best ideas and analysis rather than doctrinaire inclination or what’s easiest to sell. What else would you want from the world’s greatest ̽��ֱ�� but the best thinking on subjects that matter?”

Cambridge is fielding a series of talks and debates by leading academics on a range of global challenges at this year's Hay literary Festival.

̽��ֱ��Cambridge experts cut through the political and media spin on big issues and look at them with real attention and intellectual rigour.

Peter Florence

Hay Festival.

̽��ֱ��main site at the Hay Festival.

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Yes

Hay gears up for Greek marathon

bjb42 — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 11:32:18 +0000

Ancient Greece is all the rage this year as the UK gears up for Olympic fever and this year's Hay Festival [www.hayfestival.com] is no exception. It is putting on a series of debates on classical Greece covering everything from Plato to heroisation and sex.

̽��ֱ��idea for the series came after Professor Paul Cartledge, A.G. Leventis Professor of Greek Culture, gave a very popular talk at Hay 2010 on how the Greeks would view contemporary democracy. He will be taking part in three of the 10 Greek Classics sessions this year.

On 7^th June he will speak on the first panel on Herodotus, described in the Festival programme as “the Father of History, who pioneered the systems of ‘inquiry’ and holds a mirror up to our own concerns about East and West”. His fellow panellist is author and Cambridge alumnus Tom Holland.

̽��ֱ��two are collaborating on a new hardback translation of Herodotus for Penguin so at least part of the focus of their session will be the translation process. “Tom is not a classicist. His degree was in English,” says Professor Cartledge, “but he has turned himself into a master historian and translator.”

Tom's books include Persian Fire, the first world empire, battle for the West which draws extensively on Herodotus.

̽��ֱ��new translation, which will be completed by the time the Hay Festival begins, will be printed on high quality paper and will only be out in hardback. There could be an e-version as well, which would be the first digital version of Herodotus.

Later that day Professor Cartledge will also be speaking at a session entitled the Greek Idea. This will cover the aspirations and concepts of civilisation, democracy, drama, virtue, victory, liberty and xenia, and discuss what the study of Classics has meant in the wider world.

̽��ֱ��panel consists of Tom Holland, popular historian Bettany Hughes, ̽��ֱ�� of Warwick philosopher and former Cambridge alumna Angela Hobbs and Professor Cartledge and the session is based on a proposal which Professor Cartledge and Bettany Hughes are putting forward for a 15-part BBC Radio Four series. This will be consist of 15 minute programmes on Greek ideas that have had a major impact down the ages.

̽��ֱ��third session he is taking part in on 8^th June is on Plato with Angela Hobbs, a Plato specialist and a former pupil of Professor Cartledge and Bettany Hughes who has a book out on Socrates, Plato's mentor. Professor Cartledge has also written a chapter on Socrates in his book, Ancient Greek Political Thought in Practice. ̽��ֱ��panellists will consider the influence and impact of ̽��ֱ��Republic and ̽��ֱ��Symposium.

Professor Cartledge is a veteran of the Cambridge series at the Hay Festival – now in its fourth year - and last year he was in a discussion with Guardian journalist and author Charlotte Higgins which drew an audience of around 400 people.

“It shows how Cambridge, Classics, outreach and impact are just bubbling at the moment. It's terrific publicity and I'm very thrilled to be taking part,” he says.

He has also written the introduction to ̽��ֱ��Sites of Ancient Greece, a book of aerial photos of Greece published by Phaidon which will be launched on 3^rd May at Heffers and he will be on the Today programme talking about it this week. “There's a huge buzz about ancient Greece right now thanks to the Olympics,” he says.

Next year, the Hay Festival will run a series on Rome which will be organised by Professor Mary Beard.

For the full line-up of the Cambridge series at the Hay Festival, click here. Tickets can be booked through the Hay Festival site.

Following a successful talk at Hay in 2010, Professor Paul Cartledge will be playing a major part in a series of 10 discussions on Ancient Greece at this year's festival, alongside Cambridge's own regular programme.

It shows how Cambridge, Classics, outreach and impact are just bubbling at the moment.

Paul Cartledge

Michailk via Creative Commons

Herodotus

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Yes

Power to the people?

bjb42 — Wed, 26 May 2010 08:06:04 +0000

Imagine the following situation, which may be familiar: ̽��ֱ��United States is edging towards armed conflict with an Islamic dictatorship which, it claims, is harbouring powerful weapons of mass destruction. In Britain, the Government vows to stand shoulder to shoulder with its American ally, but there is widespread protest from the voting public. As the deadline for invasion looms, the voice of the people seems to be falling on deaf ears. ̽��ֱ��country, apparently against the majority will, teeters on the brink of war.

Now imagine that this particular version of Britain has also recently undergone radical democratic reform. Thanks to the miracle of the new “e-democracy” website, any eligible citizen can have their say on the issues of the moment and the Government must abide by the wishes of the majority. On an appointed date, you log in and, along with millions of others, cast your vote on whether this war should happen. ̽��ֱ��result is a resounding “no”. British forces are stood down.

Cloud cuckoo land? Science fiction? We forget that in democracy’s cradle of Ancient Greece, the principles at play here would have been utterly recognisable. In Athens, the most famous and radical of the Greek democracies, such issues were decided by an “ekklesia”, or assembly, comprising every eligible member of the voting public. As in the imagined e-democracy, each vote cast counted for one and decision was by majority.

So if Athens, the original democracy, was so different to our own (real) system, have we, in Britain, really come to terms with what democracy means? It’s the sort of question that has clearly been bothering plenty of people since the recent General Election prompted calls for an overhaul of our allegedly “undemocratic” and “broken” electoral process. It is also a theme central to Professor Paul Cartledge’s lecture at the Hay Festival on June 3^rd.

Cartledge is A G Leventis Professor of Greek culture at the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and has written a multitude of books and articles on Ancient Greece and its political thought and practice, along with many other themes. Where politicians frequently invoke democracy’s name because of its potency as an ancient, almost hallowed principle, he is at pains to point out that the Greek interpretation was radically different to our own.

“ ̽��ֱ��only real continuity between ancient and modern democracy is the name,” Cartledge points out. “In fact, the two ideas are so distinctive that it has become a real question for historians of later periods as to why democracy was chosen as the name for this new, representative system that we have now.”

̽��ֱ��Athenian ekklesia is probably the most stark example of this lack of continuity, but there are many others. Ancient Athens had no political parties, no government and no opposition. Even the body of officials which set the ekklesia’s agenda was chosen by random lottery, in which any eligible citizen (this meant male citizens who were “of age”) was potentially electable.

“An ordinary guy could get appointed to a pretty senior governmental position, or find himself as a juror in a crucial state trial,” Cartledge says. “There were some exceptions, but the Athenians were radical. They made the lottery a major political act.”

All of this certainly sounds completely alien compared with our own system. ̽��ֱ��fact is, however, that democracy has always defied clear definition. Taken literally, the term is an amalgam of two Greek words – “demos”, meaning people, and “kratos”, meaning power, but nobody has ever really been able to agree on what the ensuing “people power” should mean.

̽��ֱ��Lincolnian definition, for instance, was government of the People by the People for the People. Leninists, on the other hand, regarded it as meaning the triumph of the proletariat over a ruling elite. For a long time after the demise of the Athenian version, the term was even associable with mob rule. In 6^th century (AD) Byzantium, the word “democracy” meant a riot.

In short, when it comes to the precise meaning of democracy, the jury (however it has been elected) is very much still out. None of which has stopped modern politicians, from the leaders of our newly-installed Coalition to successive leaders of the free world, from identifying it as a symbol of human civilisation that has echoed down through the centuries thanks to the Athenian example.

Cartledge reckons that there are two reasons for this. First, the sheer audacity of Ancient Greece’s radicalism is striking even now, particularly when one considers that until then, any state system had imposed a sharp division between the masses and the ruling elite.

Secondly, Athenian democracy in particular is culturally seductive, because it coincides with some of humanity’s greatest achievements. “ ̽��ֱ��Parthenon, Pericles, Socrates, Sophocles, Plato, Aristotle… one can go on,” Cartledge says. “It’s a bit like Renaissance Florence. There was an extraordinary flowering of culture and that includes political theory.” Never mind that some of the key theorists, like Aristotle, were vehemently opposed to democracy because of its unsavoury, mob connotations.

You could argue that if our own system is indeed both different and “broken”, modern politicians could do worse than look to the Athenians for a few ideas to help them patch it up. ̽��ֱ��growing accessibility of the internet means that “e-democracy”, for example, however space-age it may sound, is increasingly feasible.

This might seem very attractive if we just imagine ourselves voting against war with Iraq. If we think of the same system applied to a nationwide vote on immigration, Europe, or the reinstatement of capital punishment, however, it becomes clear that it is more volatile than we might at first presume.

In fact, a huge gulf between us and the Ancient Athenians prohibits such acts of simple transmutation. “Their governmental system worked because it was direct and face-to-face,” Cartledge says. “ ̽��ֱ��Greeks had tiny communities of a few hundred or a few thousand; not millions.”

“One lesson you learn from Ancient Greece is that it’s not just a matter of technique but a matter of culture. For democracy to work in that form, you had to live it and understand the nuances of the different positions and issues at stake. Nowadays, for very good reasons, we privilege the world of work, or our private lives, over and above politics. It’s very difficult to be democratic.”

So why study the Greek model at all? For Cartledge, the ongoing fascination of Greek democracy is not in its role as a model for our own time, but, more subtly, the set of principles it represents.

“ ̽��ֱ��fundamental principle is a notion of equality,” he explains. “We might not be able to translate the techniques, but we can translate the ideas. What the Greeks show us is that democracy involves creating institutions that most do justice to treating every person’s contribution as politically equal.”

Using Athens as a highly distinctive point of reference helps us to ask important questions about how well our own process is representing the notion of “people power”. Some of these questions are being asked of our electoral system right now. A referendum on alternative voting certainly involves the application of one citizen, one vote, for example, but it could be argued that proportional representation would be truer still to the egalitarian principles at stake.

Cartledge believes that the lottery system used to elect officials could also be “creatively employed” in a modern context, perhaps when it comes to allocating government funds in certain cases, or the selection of an upper house. Recalling the way in which Tony Blair dealt with the invasion of Iraq in 2003, he even, (half) jokingly, wonders whether a system of selective ostracism – the Athenian process whereby a citizen who had made bad political calls could be dismissed, harmlessly, from the political community by popular vote – might work on the odd occasion.

Broadly, however, it is for lessons, ideas and warnings that we should look to the Athenians, rather than systems that we can simply plunder and claim as our own. Whether or not we ultimately go down the route of more referendum politics or dramatically change the way we vote, the merits and drawbacks of these approaches were debated ad nauseam in the Athenian assembly.

“We can’t take over Athenian democracy lock, stock and barrel, but we can use it to inform and change our perception both of their system and our own,” Cartledge adds. “They helps us to see what underlies the notions of ‘the people’, political empowerment and equality. We tend to lose sight of those ideas, because our own world is much more complex. Understandably, that means that in our own time, there is perhaps more reluctance to empower ordinary citizens than there was in Ancient Athens.”

Paul Cartledge will be speaking at the Hay Festival on June 3^rd, at 10.30am.

Greece was the birthplace of democracy, but our own political system would be unrecognisable to voters in Ancient Athens. As Classicist Paul Cartledge explains, however, that doesn’t mean that our ancient forbears have left us with nothing to learn.

We can’t take over Athenian democracy lock, stock and barrel, but we can use it to inform and change our perception both of their system and our own

Dr Paul Cartledge

D'Arcy Norman from Flickr

Democracy

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