Equality by lot

The Guardian has an obituary of Mogens Herman Hansen.

Danish historian who transformed our understanding of the way Athenian democracy functioned

The term democracy emerged in the classical city-state of Athens to denote power exercised by common people, at that point men who were not slaves. From around the sixth century BC, officials were chosen by lot and were subordinate to a citizens’ assembly that made decisions. Writers on this process tended to describe it in theoretical terms. But the Danish historian Mogens Herman Hansen, who has died aged 83 after a short illness, transformed understanding of how Athenian democracy functioned by approaching it empirically, through a series of simple questions.

Hansen established the actual practices of the direct democratic assembly, the nature of the leadership exercised by the distinct classes of orators and generals in the absence of any form of partisan political structures, and the importance of mood and rhetoric on the opinions of the mass assembly.

His second insight was based on the fact that previous interpretations of Athenian democracy had ignored how it had changed as a result of Athens’ defeat in the Peloponnesian war with Sparta and the constitutional reforms that began in 403 BC.

The system had moved from the assembly being sovereign to one that was ruled by the distinction between laws (nomoi) that were permanent, and decisions (psephismata) that had to be made in conformity with the laws, and could be challenged in the courts if they were not.

Hansen’s evidence came from existing fourth-century assembly speeches, and the resulting book was entitled The Athenian Democracy in the Age of Demosthenes (1991). It contrasted the period in which the statesman Demosthenes used his oratory to persuade the assembly on matters such as the threat of invasion from Macedonia with the fifth-century democracy of Pericles, about which little could be known.

The Athenian Democracy in the Age of Demosthenes has become the go-to book on many questions regarding the functioning of democratic Athens, including specifically the application of sortition. Hansen’s rationalization of sortition seems to be similar to that of Headlam (and of many modern sortition advocates). Sortition, according to Hansen, is not about political equality but rather aimed to reduce political strife and to limit the power of office holders.

The lot was based on the idea not that all men were equally expert, but that all men were expert enough at what they were chosen for, and that by the use of the lot magistracies would cease to be attractive as weapons in the struggle for power. (p. 236.)

Searching for “Hansen” on this blog brings up many mentions of Hansen’s work.

Filed under: Academia, Athens, Books, History, Sortition |