Political Law: Athens, Sparta, Plato’s Republic, and Justice
Final Exam Questions: Political Law
Athens and Sparta: Forms of Government in 5th Century BC Greece
Athens and Sparta were the two main city-states in 5th century BC Greece. Here are their different forms of government and relevant institutions:
Athens
The Constitution of Athens polarized all democratic states of Greece.
The Boule or Council of 500 was composed of 500 citizens over 30 years of age, with 50 from each tribe. It executed Assembly resolutions, governed finances, received ambassadors, and ratified treaties and alliances.
The Assembly or Ecclesia was the supreme institution of Athens and the center of its political life. It was composed of all citizens of the city over 20 years of age.
Assembly resolutions could be integrated into the Constitution (rules). A committee of dikasts reviewed resolutions to prevent new laws from contradicting the existing normative order.
If a contradiction occurred, it could be challenged through a public constitutional and criminal action against an arbitrary law (action “Graphée for gnomon”) if the resolution referred to a particular case or a specific topic.
Any citizen could initiate this action, denouncing anyone who proposed an illegitimate law. The submission had to be made in writing to the Ecclesia or the courts of Heliaster, with a clear indication of the higher law that had been violated.
The action suspended the validity of the challenged law until a sentence was issued if the appeal had been submitted to the Assembly.
The illegality of substance was checked when a new decree or law contradicted an ancient law that had not been repealed.
This action, introduced by Pericles, was a formidable instrument of constitutional stability in Athens.
A quorum of 6,000 citizens was needed for ostracism.
The Assembly elected the strategists or generals.
Magistrates
Archons: A body of 10 members chosen by lot, with 1 Archon from each tribe.
Chief Archon: The visible head of state, called eponym because he gave his name to the year. He directed the great Dionysia. His judicial duties were related to family law.
King Archon or Basileus: The main state religious official, who presided over murder trials and religious causes.
The Polemarchus: Presided over cases involving non-citizens.
Secretary Archon
The 6 Thesmothetae or Archons Children: Dealt with legal matters, ensuring the progress of the courts and the conservation and revision of legal codes.
The Council of the Areopagus: Composed of ex-archons who served for life. Its jurisdiction included willful killing, poisoning, and arson.
The Juries: Most trials in Athens were resolved in these courts. A body of 6,000 citizens was divided into 10 sections. Court sizes fluctuated between 201 and 2,501 jurors.
Sparta
The Constitution of Sparta was the epitome of the aristocratic state. Its Constitution was attributed to the great legislator Lycurgus, who lived in the 9th century BC. Spartan political and legal institutions were the strongest and most enduring in the Hellenic world.
The attribution of Sparta’s highest laws to divine revelation gave them tenure, stability, and respect among the Spartans. It was configured as follows:
2 Kings or Diarchy: Descendants of the mythical hero Hercules, they were subordinate to the Council of the Gerousia, of which they were members by right.
2 Councils:
The Council of the Gerousia: The great council of elders, composed of 28 members over 60 years of age. It was the supreme body of Sparta, with extensive powers, deciding on alliances, peace, and war, and could be involved in all aspects of the city-state.
The Council of the Ephors: A committee of 5 judges called Ephors with executive and judicial functions. They were subordinate to the Council of the Gerousia, with administrative jurisdiction, and individually involved in civil proceedings.
2 Assemblies:
The Great Assembly or Apella: Its duties were mainly formal. It was composed of citizens of Dorian Spartan origin who owned land and served in the military. They had to be registered on the electoral list of the tribes and be married.
Little Apella: Met with elderly people convened to address the fundamental or urgent issues of the city. It was composed of the Gerousia and select guests, including prominent members of the new aristocracy.
Its meetings were secret and could address issues such as the dynastic succession of kings, peace treaties, alliances, public processes, and other matters highlighted for the future of Sparta.
Plato’s Position on the State in “The Republic”
Plato believed that human sociability is a natural condition of man.
The Role of Government: To lead society, with power over those below. Its mission is to legislate, enforce laws, organize education, and administer the city. Those who govern should be philosophers, aware of the dialectic, shrewd, honest, with religious fervor, and well-educated.
The Role of Guardians: Directed towards the defense of the city and the preservation of public order. It does not require a large number (up to a thousand), but it does require special preparation and conduct. Plato requires these two functions to waive the right to private property in goods, women, and children.
The Role of Trade: Refers to trades and the satisfaction of material needs posed by the growth and development of society, such as navigation, commerce, clothing, food, accommodation, etc.
Plato’s Ideal State and its Fundamentals
Plato’s main political works are “The Republic” and “The Laws,” where he develops his theory on the State and the virtues that give it substance.
“The Republic” is the first major treatise on both a theory of politics and a theory of education.
Plato’s political thought advocates educating men to virtue, for the constant exercise of morality, which is the sole basis of government and the common good.
This thinker proposed how to build a perfect state, which would not be subject to the corruption and decay that affected Hellenic society after the century of splendor (5th century BC, Pericles).
Education of Citizens: A strict upbringing, dispensed by the state, is destined to form the elites. Politics is a major undertaking and should only be entrusted to bodies prepared for it. This education is essentially an education of reason.
Plato uses the criterion of division of labor to raise the various strata of society.
He recognizes the social class of rulers, which should not be large. To them belongs the rational soul.
The second class consists of the guardians, to whom corresponds the irascible or fiery soul, with the function of self-defense.
The third class consists of farmers, artisans, carpenters, merchants, sailors, etc. It has the concupiscible soul.
Plato on Justice, Division of Labor, and Succession of Regimes
Justice is the harmony that should exist between the three virtues of men and the State: Temperance, Courage, and Wisdom.
Plato proposed the division of labor according to the virtues of the soul, whose base is justice.
Philosophers in the State are to rule because only they can achieve with their spirit the unchanging essences of things.
Thus, the philosopher, who embodies wisdom, would shape the state according to a divine ideal, as the archetype of the republic is in heaven, but a man must do it himself.
Courage corresponds to the warriors, and Temperance to the artisans.
If man and state are temperate, brave, and wise, men shall be just, and so shall the state.
In both, the better and smaller should rule over the worse and more numerous: the soul and intelligence over the body and appetites.
Thus, justice is that all parties play their role properly, and in the state, that all classes fulfill theirs.
Justice is the health of the soul and the state.
Monarchy would be the best form of government.
The Succession of Regimes
In aspiring to a state conforming to a divine model, Plato tries to “define the conditions under which a system is perfect and indestructible” and, we might add, that escapes becoming, the succession of regimes. To stop evolution, it is necessary, first, to know it.
In the study of constitution changes, Plato will give a general law: the political future is not just a pure accidental sequence of events, but is governed by strict determinism.
The aristocracy, the perfect form described in “The Republic,” will, through continuous evolution, be morally degraded into timocracy, oligarchy, democracy, and tyranny.
Timocracy is established when, in the ideal type of aristocracy, members of the third class, the workers, get rich, and, having to repress their ambition by military force, the warriors prey, sharing the wealth and oppressing those they were originally supposed to protect.
The man of the timocratic household seeks honor and ambition, and is mindless, but less vile, however, than the pursuit of wealth.
Plato says that the constitutions of Crete and Sparta exemplify this regime.