It is important to understand that unlike other democracies, such as the United States of America or the French Republic, Athenian democracy was not born of popular uprisings but of the commitment of politicians to ensure the city unit. Here are the four main reforms that can be distinguished, as well as their instigators:
Dracon Reforms
Dracon is mandated, in 621-620, to write down laws applying only to murder cases and whose harshness was to remain legendary - hence the adjective draconian. Limited measure which, however, affirms for the first time the authority of the State above kinship in the field of justice, establishes a common law for all and, by the same token, undermines the arbitrariness of aristocrats . Six thesmothetes (guardians of the written law) then come to reinforce the college of archons. Despite the amplification of the crisis, the economic and political monopoly of the great Athenian families, the Eupatrids are however in no way attacked, the archons (directing the city collectively) still all coming from these backgrounds. Two models solving this problem emerged in Greece in the 6th century:
* either the arbitration of a legislator, charged, in a sort of consensus, with putting an end to troubles which risk degenerating into civil war;
* or tyranny, which, in the he evolution of archaic Greece very often appears as a transitory solution to the problems of the city. With Solon, the legislator, then with the Pisistratids, Athens will successively experience both.
Solon's Reforms
Solon tried to resolve the political crisis that was going through his city. Archon from 594 to 593, legislator, author of a code of laws, he abolished debt slavery and affirmed the right of all to participate in the decisions of the city. He fixed the obligations of each towards the city according to the personal fortune.
However, the system put in place by Solon remains deeply unequal:it boils down to the transition from an aristocratic regime to a plutocratic regime. Citizens are now divided into 4 tax classes. Based on the number of measures of wheat, wine and oil that the citizen possesses, he belongs to one of the following four "tribes":the pentacosiomedimnas (who possess more than 500 medimnas of grain), the hippeis ( more than 300 medimnas), the zeugites (more than 200 medimnas) and the thetes (less than 200 medimnas). The Boulè was established as a consultative body of power (we do not know today the importance of this function) which still remains in the hands of the Areopagus. Each tribe annually sends 100 representatives to the Boulê, which is therefore made up of 400 men.
The individual rights are variable according to the social condition, thus the high magistracies are reserved for the pentacosiomédimnes. But anxious to strengthen the spirit of concord and solidarity, Solon submits these powerful to liturgical duty. Thanks to this system, on the one hand, the little people now free no longer have a strong hatred against the elites who are increasingly perceived as benefactors. On the other hand, the claims of the nascent bourgeoisie made up of "international" merchants, skilled entrepreneurs, and owners of commercial fleets were partially satisfied, the offices of archons still being reserved for large landowners.
Reforms of Cleisthenes
Through his reform of 508 Cleisthenes, eupatrid member of one of the greatest families of Athens, the Alcmaeonids, conceded to the people participation not only in political decisions but also in political functions in exchange for their support. This reform is based on the reorganization of civic space. The old political structures based on wealth and family groups were replaced by a system of territorial distribution. An Athenian citizen is now only defined by his membership in a deme.
Attica is divided into three areas:the city (asty), the coast (paraly), and the interior (mesogea). Within each set are ten groups of demes, called trittyes. The union of three trittyes, one from each set, forms a tribe:there are therefore ten tribes. This system, on which the new organization of the institutions is based, breaks the practice of traditional clientelism. We speak of isonomy.
New administrative and civic organization of Attica after the reform of Cleisthenes
New administrative and civic organization of Attica after the reform of Cleisthenes
To the hierarchical social and administrative structure,:
Deme ⊂ Trittye ⊂ Tribe ⊂ City,
Cleisthenes matches a hierarchical structure of power:
Prytanes ⊂ Boulè ⊂ Ecclesia.
Judges ⊂ Heliae ⊂ Ecclesia.
The Boulè thus increases from 400 to 500 members, 50 for each new tribe, and no longer serves to enlighten the Areopagus but to define the agenda of the Ecclesia. Despite the creation of the courts of Heliaa, the stranglehold on the judicial power of the Areopagus remains predominant.
The reform did not retain the vote as the main method of designating political leaders, preferring to draw lots (for the designation of bouleutes and heliasts) and a system of regular alternation for prytanes, which, in part, of the Athenian democracy a stochocracy.
Reforms of Pericles
Around the middle of the 5th century BC. J.-C. Périclès set up a daily attendance allowance within the Héliée and the Boulê, as well as at the shows of the Panathénées:it is the misthos (“salary”) intended to involve the citizens the poorest and most distant from the city. It allowed them to be unemployed one day to carry out their civic and political functions. The amount of the misthos rose from two to three obols a day under Cleon, equivalent to the low wages of a worker. This measure reinforced the democratic character of the Athenian regime.
However, Pericles distinguished himself more by his military and diplomatic actions as well as by the major projects he raised than by his renovation of political institutions.