is assistant professor of classical studies

at the University of Pennsylvania

What is democracy? Citizens of the United States tend to associate it with freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, freedom of religion. We assume that democratic societies are better for their citizens to live in than tyrannies, oligarchies, theocracies, or militia states; better, of course, than totalitarian regimes.

We may assume, too, that democratic government will include "checks and balances" like those in the U.S. Constitution - and will therefore be less liable to make bad decisions than other forms of government.

Democracy, most of us assume, is simply the best form of government.

Modern democracy is largely inspired by one of the world's earliest democratic societies: ancient Athens. It is from the Athenians that we get the word democracy, from the ancient Greek demokratia, "rule by the people."

But our assumptions about democracy would not have been shared by many in classical Athens.

In fact, that first democracy offers some corrective lessons for anyone who idealizes democracy. For one thing, it can be argued, the Athenian democracy destroyed itself directly through democratic means: by voting again and again for costly, disastrous wars. For another, a legally appointed jury in Athens voted for the death penalty for the public intellectual and teacher Socrates. Two contemporaries, Xenophon and Plato, viewed his death as an illustration of the failings and dangers of the Athenian democratic system.

To many Athenians in the later years of the fifth century B.C.E., as the Peloponnesian War against Sparta and her allies dragged on and on, it was very clear that voters in a democracy were likely to be swayed by emotion and to favor the best speaker or the most charismatic personality in a political debate - even though that person might well not have made the best argument. Wars make voters restless and unhappy, but do not necessarily help them make good decisions. Wars are popular with the voters, even when war is against their own interests. The Knights, a play by Aristophanes, vividly depicts People (Demos) as a slave to a general and demagogue, Cleon, who whipped up the feelings of the populace against the Spartans, and persuaded them to perpetuate the war rather than strive for a peace settlement - at an enormous cost in terms of Athenian resources, money, and lives.

Aristophanes' play suggests that democracy need not mean freedom for the people. It may mean simply that the people choose their own bad masters.

Not everyone in Athens could vote. The vote was denied to women, slaves, foreigners, permanent residents, and certain criminals. But among those who could vote (the adult male population), Athens was in some ways far more democratic than modern U.S. or European democracies. Voters did not pick representatives for their interests in government decisions. The community was small enough that the whole electorate could have a direct vote on big decisions, such as whether to go to war. The committee for the daily running of government was chosen yearly by lottery. An important subset of the population, then, had much more direct power over government than is the case in modern, supposedly democratic systems. The United States is, by Athenian standards, not really a democracy at all, but rather an elected oligarchy.

One could argue that the people's lack of direct influence over policy is a blessing: Perhaps we are saved from ourselves. But this argument works only if our representatives are more responsible and competent in decision-making than we can be for ourselves - which can hardly be guaranteed. The personality politics created by modern media - television and the Internet - risk taking us closer to the demagoguery of the Athenian political scene. It is not necessarily a good thing that voters can see and hear the people they choose to govern their country. Transparency itself may be dangerous.