We sometimes hear about the Greeks inventing democracy. But is America a democracy?
The framers of our constitution wanted to avoid the mistakes of earlier civilizations and come up with the best political system for the United States. They studied ancient Athens, as well as other Greek states, and their alliances and confederacies. Mostly, what they took away from studying Greek democracy was what to avoid.
Our founders thought the Athenian constitution was too democratic. Every important question had to be decided by vote of all the male citizens of Athens who showed up in the city square when called together. This same body could remove generals and other officials and send them into exile, and these public officers were not elected; they were chosen by lot for very short terms of office. The whole idea was to have a system where no person or group could exercise power very long, and everything was based on the will of the majority or on chance, on rolling the dice. The problem was that the majority changed its mind a lot and was swayed by tricky politicians. Sometimes, the mob was even duped into giving up its rights and voting for a dictatorship.
For our founding fathers, Athenian democracy was too much like mob rule. So, they rejected it, opting instead for a republic of limited powers and checks and balances. It is a democratic republic because officials are elected by the people, but those officials decide the laws, not the people themselves, and they serve longer terms of office. The people can only oust them by defeating them for reelection when their terms are up.
"The History of Our Freedoms" is produced by KEDT-FM in Corpus Christi. Dr. Bill Chriss is a historian and legal scholar. For more on history and the constitution, check out his blog at https://drbillchriss.substack.com/.
