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1º ESO/WHAT DID DEMOCRACY REALLY MEAN IN ATHENS - Contenido educativo
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Hey, congratulations!
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You've just won the lottery.
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Only the prize isn't cash or a luxury cruise.
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It's a position in your country's national legislature.
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And you aren't the only lucky winner.
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All of your fellow lawmakers were chosen in the same way.
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This might strike you as a strange way to run a government,
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let alone a democracy.
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Elections are the epitome of democracy, right?
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Well, the ancient Athenians who coined the word had another view.
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In fact, elections only played a small role in Athenian democracy,
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with most offices filled by random lottery from a pool of citizen volunteers.
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Unlike the representative democracies common today,
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where voters elect leaders to make laws and decisions on their behalf,
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5th century B.C. Athens was a direct democracy
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that encouraged wide participation
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through the principle of ha bulaminos,
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or anyone who wishes.
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This meant that any of its approximately
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30,000 eligible citizens
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could attend the ecclesia,
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a general assembly meeting,
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several times a month.
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In principle, any of the 6,000 or so
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who showed up at each session
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had the right to address their fellow citizens,
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propose a law, or bring a public lawsuit.
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Of course, a crowd of 6,000 people
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trying to speak at the same time
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would not have made for effective government.
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So the Athenian system also relied
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on a 500-member governing council called the bule
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to set the agenda and evaluate proposals,
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in addition to hundreds of jurors and magistrates
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to handle legal matters.
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Rather than being elected or appointed,
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the people in these positions were chosen by lot.
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This process of randomized selection is known as sortition.
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The only positions filled by elections
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were those recognized as requiring expertise, such as generals.
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But these were considered aristocratic, meaning rule by the best,
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as opposed to democracies, rule by the many.
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How did this system come to be?
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Well, democracy arose in Athens after long periods of social and political tension marked by conflict
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among nobles. Powers once restricted to elites, such as speaking in the assembly and having their
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votes counted, were expanded to ordinary citizens. And the ability of ordinary citizens to perform
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these tasks adequately became a central feature of the democratic ideology of Athens. Rather than a
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civic participation was the duty of all citizens,
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with sortition and strict term limits
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preventing governing classes or political parties from forming.
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By 21st century standards,
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Athenian rule by the many excluded an awful lot of people.
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Women, slaves, and foreigners were denied full citizenship.
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And when we filter out those too young to serve,
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the pool of eligible Athenians
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drops to only 10 to 20% of the overall population.
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Some ancient philosophers, including Plato,
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disparaged this form of democracy
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as being anarchic and run by fools,
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but today the word has such positive associations
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that vastly different regimes claim to embody it.
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At the same time,
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some share Plato's skepticism about the wisdom of crowds.
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Many modern democracies reconcile this conflict
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conflict by having citizens
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elect those they consider qualified
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to legislate on their behalf.
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But this poses its own
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problems, including the influence
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of wealth and the emergence of
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professional politicians with
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different interests than their constituents.
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Could reviving
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election by lottery lead to
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more effective government through a more
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diverse and representative group of legislators?
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Or does modern political
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office, like Athenian military
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requires specialized knowledge and skills.
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You probably shouldn't hold your breath
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to win a spot in your country's government.
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But depending on where you live,
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you may still be selected to participate in a jury,
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a citizen's assembly, or a deliberative poll,
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all examples of how the democratic principle
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behind sortition still survives today.
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- Subido por:
- Alicia M.
- Licencia:
- Dominio público
- Visualizaciones:
- 260
- Fecha:
- 29 de noviembre de 2020 - 21:25
- Visibilidad:
- Público
- Centro:
- IES LA SENDA
- Duración:
- 04′ 51″
- Relación de aspecto:
- 1.78:1
- Resolución:
- 1920x1080 píxeles
- Tamaño:
- 127.82 MBytes