How the Greek Invented the Modern World
Draco, Solon, Cleisthenes, Pericles, and the birth of democracy
When we use the term Athenian democracy, we must be careful not to compare it to the modern-day liberal democracies we are accustomed to. For one, universal suffrage, where being of legal age is the only condition for exercising one’s right to vote, is a recent achievement. It would never have crossed the minds of Ancient Greece legislators to allow such a thing.
By the way, I suspect that few people know that women weren’t allowed to vote in Switzerland, one of the world’s most civilized countries, until 1971. That’s when a referendum gave them that right at the federal level. Several cantons — the equivalent of US states — had “already” introduced that right starting in 1959. Others would follow as late as 1990.
But, the process had to start somewhere. Most historians agree that it started in Athens — also the birthplace of Western philosophical thinking, of course — between the VI and the V century BCE.
Prior to that, a very consequential law had changed Athens’ mores for the better.
Draco and the end of Athens’ culture of revenge
Draco was the first legislator chosen by the Athenian citizens to be a lawgiver…
