Democracy was a rather rooted Greek invention: in ancient Greece , in fact , it had the character of universality and eternity; besides it impressed our Christian soul, in particular the State and the society.

The word that Ancient Greeks used to define their political system was <Democracy> and it referred to “ majority”.

The most important Athenian political leaders were:

“The word we use to define our Democracy is “ Oikèin” because our political system refers to “ majority “ and not to “ power” or to “ entire people”…but in private disputes we give equal weight to everyone and there is freedom in our public life.”

(Pericles’ word attributed to him by Thucidides in II,37)

Pericles, the greatest Athenian political leader, with

this sentence, labelled the existing political system in V century Athens, associating political system not to the

power of the entire people, as was erroneously stated in the

preamble to the European Constitution draft in 2003,

but to the majority expressed by the people.

Athens, despite the disastrous conclusion of the Peloponnese war, thanks to Democracy became the school of Greece, being the spokesman of principles such as <parresia>, <isegoria> and <isonomia>,

that praised freedom of speech and equality of laws and rights.

However Greek writers weren’t in favour of

Democracy and their hostility derived from their aristocratic and

conservative character whose model was Sparta, clearly in opposition to the

democratic Athens.

At the beginning the Athenian government was led by the Archons that, elected by the nobles

every year and supported by the <Aereopago’s

Assembly> ,that was the most ancient and

aristocratic judicial Body, represented the monarchic

power.Only then a way was opened

towards a real democratic Constitution, through important

reforms, such as the Solon’s ones, that abolished slavery in

524 b.C. and the creation of <Elièa> (the judicial popular

Body opposed to the aristocratic <Areopago>).

But the real democratic

Costitution was known in Athens in 510 b.C. thanks to

Cleisthenes.

He created the 500 Council (Bulè),that through the 50 members

elected by each of the ten tribes, had an executive character and deprived the Archons of their authority very soon; it controlled the work of all magistrates and stategists,and it

drew up the agenda of the general people meeting through the Ekklesia Body. It was formed by male citizens

only, over 20 and the functions of <Ekklesia>, unlike the Bulè were

legislative but also judicial, as it was decided about the preservation of

existing laws and the withdrawal or the preservation of magistrates,

entirely dependent on the decisions taken by the people.

The third fundamental democratic Institution was the <Elièa>,the judicial popular

Body instituted by Solon. It was formed by judges, opposed to the aristocratic power of the <Areopago>. But people had

soon another formidable instrument of control,

<Ostracism>, that banished whomever was impopular from

the State.

Athenian Constitution had its glorious period in 462; Areopago’s power was limited in favour of three

popular Bodies: the <Assemby>, the <500 Council> and <Elièa>. Moreover in 457 also the <zeugiti>, that represented the third class, were admitted to the office

of Archon.

Pericles gave, with the <Misthophorìa>, an important development to the Athenian Democracy, permitting the active participation of all political members to the Assembly. Pericles guaranteed not only the individual

liberty in Athens but also the <isonomia> and the <isegoria>, essential elements of democracy for the Greeks: in fact ancient Greece was called the <cradle of culture>. Subsequently there will be the decline of

the Democracy but ancient Greece will remain the symbol of the West forever.

Pericles was perceived as a real princeps by

Thucidides: a kind of supremacy, a personal power that established Democracy, and on the contrary, there was the

government of <PRÒTOS ANÈR>(II, 65). Thucidides described Pericles as the princeps with very similar characteristics to those of

the tyrant Pisistratus whose governament was

characterized by uninterrupted continuity

within a correct costitutional system.

In Aristotle,the difference between the two opposing

political systems did not lie in the fact that lots or few

people possessed the citizenship, but in the fact if they

were owners or not; he set out that even

in oligarchies the <majority> was in

power. In “Politician” and “Laws” Plato argued that laws

should be supreme.

In these conditions Greek political life investigated about the origins of the two constant motives of ancient political

thought: 1) the lack of sympathy for democracy, not appreciated more than monarchy or oligarchy; 2) the ideal of the “mixed State” as an excellent state. The

“mixed State”, costant ideal of Greek politicians, was an effetive balance between the state Bodies corresponding

to the political forces.

Comparing the Greek Democracy to ours, we very

often reduced it to liberty and equality only; the real

reason was that our Democracy (Western

Europe and America) came to maturity during the

Enlightenment, that defined the political problem in

essentially individualistic terms. Besides, the popular sovereingnity consisted in the State control by people meant as a combination of

individuals, whose fundamental aspiration was

to garantee their own person.