Political Science 1020E Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Oligarchy, Aristocracy, Direct Democracy
25 Nov 2014
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Document Summary
Political power the power to issue and enforce binding commands. What is democracy: rule (kratos) by the many/people (demos, collective self-rule, government of/for/by the people, historically unpopular view, for most of history democracy was seen as a bad idea. Features of athenian democracy: direct democracy direct citizen participation in public decision making, exclusionary free, athenian men only, no slaves/ foreigners (metics non-athenian residents) (ex. Intolerant did not tolerate ideas: culturally homogenous relatively small area, culturally unified (sharing only greek language and culture) Thursday, sept 25: more democratic than ours direct representation. Less democratic than ours excluded most of residents in territory. Independent judges - supreme court does not take party line. Philosophers should rule: philosophy = love of wisdom, political decision makers should have judgement, skill, and knowledge, ruling is a skill attainable only by a few (small group of people governed by reason)
