Making Direct Democracy Work. An economic perspective on the graphe paranomon in ancient Athens

Carl Hampus Lyttkens (), George Tridimas () and Anna Lindgren ()
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Carl Hampus Lyttkens: Department of Economics, Lund University, Postal: Department of Economics, School of Economics and Management, Lund University, Box 7082, S-220 07 Lund, Sweden, http://www.nek.lu.se/en/contact/nek-cly
George Tridimas: Department of Accounting, Finance and Economics, Ulster University, http://www.ulster.ac.uk/staff/g-tridimas
Anna Lindgren: Centre for Mathematical Sciences, Lund University, http://www.maths.lu.se/staff/anna-lindgren

No 2017:10, Working Papers from Lund University, Department of Economics

Abstract: The specific way the Athenians set up their democracy presents both theoretical and empirical challenges. Decisions were taken by majority vote in the Assembly. To keep politicians in line, the Athenians first used ostracism, which however was replaced by the graphe paranomon around 415 BCE. The latter provided that anybody who had made a proposal in the Assembly could be accused of having made an unconstitu¬tional suggestion, bringing a severe penalty if found guilty. We know of 35 such cases between 403 and 322. During the fourth century the notion of illegality was extended to a mere question of undesirability. Henceforth any decision by the Assembly could be overturned by the courts, but if the accuser failed to get at least 20% of the jury votes, he was punished instead. While these rules can be seen as a safeguard against bad decisions, they also provided the Athenian politicians with important information about the relative strength of their political support. This effect has not been analysed before, and it may help explain the relative stability of political life in classical Athens. Furthermore this analysis also contributes to our understanding of a curious but often overlooked fact, namely that the decrees of the Athenian Assembly to a great extent concerned honorary rewards, and the use of the graphe paranomon in turn was largely focussed on the honorary decrees.

Keywords: Ancient Athens; graphe paranomon; direct democracy; judicial review; voter; information; political stability; jury composition (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H10 N40 N43 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 28 pages
Date: 2017-07-14
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-his and nep-pol
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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