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Introduction
The 4th and 5th century has been deemed as the Greek miracle because it was the era when
democracy and philosophy was invented in Greecei. It was also the time when influential figures
of western culture resided in ancient Greece such as Euripides, Sophocles, Plato, Socrates and
Aristotle. We see the emergence of democracy and it being practiced in a political framework for
the first time. Aristotle, in his work on political philosophy, The Politics, talks about Athenian
democracy and highly regarded the city-state system. He also pointed out the mechanisms that
were in place to ensure the equality of the democratic system. One of these mechanisms was that
of rotation of public office holders. Aristotle realised the need for such a mechanism to be in
place and was famously quoted as writing, “The excellence of a good citizen is to be capable of
commanding well and obeying well.”ii One may argue that this is not an effective way of
governing; however, I support this quote because from a practical point of view one needs to
experience being a follower to be an effective leader. Historically, I support the quote because
the magistrates that were picked by lot in the Polis in Ancient Greece were rotated annually to
enforce the rule that they were not only obliged to govern when picked but also obliged to obey
and be governed by the policies they themselves might have implemented during their stay in
office. And theoretically, a good leader is someone who not only tells others to do the work but
leads by example and a leader needs to be able to do this, in theory, to maximize his influence
and effectiveness.
Development Part 1
The quote stated above, taken from Aristotle’s Politics, is a good description of the
implications of the democratic system and the different mechanisms in place at that time. The
quote is essentially trying to say that a public office holder must have the trait to not only
command well but also obey well because once their term is over in a year, these public office
holders or magistrates will go back to obeying instead of commanding. iiiThe position of the
Aristotle is imbedded in the quote itself because the quote specifically says that if a citizen
commands well and obeys well, that citizen is displaying excellence towards the Polis. Aristotle
was a philosopher of politics and greatly admired the newfound democratic lot system which
offered equality to all the citizens within the political framework. He was in favour of the
mechanism of rotation and also evidently believed that to ensure equality and factionalism steps
needed to be taken and implemented. In the case with the Polis, rotation of public office holders
was one of those steps that needed to be implemented to ensure the stability of this one of a kind
democratic system.
Development Part 2
overriding practicality in the implementation of this statement. It is common sense to think that if
a person has never been affected by a particular situation or event, chances are that this person
will likely not be a good leader when dealing with that situation. For example, assuming there
were no restrictions to run for prime minister of Canada, a person who has been born and raised
in a foreign country for most of his/her life would probably not decide to run for prime minister.
One of the reasons would be the issue of popularity and wealth but the overriding issue would be
that this person was never a “stakeholder” and was never a citizen of the nation to experience
exactly what was needed from the leader. This lack of knowledge would handicap this person if
somehow he was elected as the prime minister. I feel that one needs to be a stakeholder and
needs to experience any situation or event first hand for that person to have adequate knowledge
and experience to command the nation if the person was selected to govern in an influential
position. In the Polis, through the lot system, the issues of popularity and wealth were non-
existent and the only major issue was that of being a citizen or stakeholder of the Polis to be able
obeying well would be the selection and rotation of public office holders within the Polis in
ancient Athens. There were 700 public offices that required a magistrate to run the office. Of
these 700 public offices, 100 or so offices required technical knowledge and background and
these public office holders were elected positions. The rest of the 600 were chosen by the lot
system and had a term limit of one year.iv This rule or mechanism of rotation of magistrates
within the Polis helped to eliminate the possible abuse of power if a corrupt public office holder
was picked. Another mechanism was that of scrutiny which meant that after the public office
holder had completed his term, they would have to present themselves in front of the Assembly
promoting the overall good of the Polis. This was because the public office holders did not have
enough time to abuse their power within the one year term provided and even if they did
somehow abuse it, they would have to be subject to scrutiny by the Great Assembly which would
figure would most likely figure out if the one year of power somehow only addressed their own
needs and not of the Polis as a whole. However, there were ways in which these magistrates
could circumvent these mechanisms and this was when the need for rotation was truly admired.
This was because even though magistrates could command the office with their own agenda,
they had to keep in mind the fact that they soon would be the ones on the obeying side and had to
ensure their future and in that securing the future of the Polis as a whole.
In a theoretical sense, I believe that for a leader to be as effective as possible they need to
lead by example. Humans have a tendency to favour people who have generated positive results
in the past. The public respects and listens to people who have a strong reputation. In the context
of ancient Athens, within the Polis, the excellence of the citizen was displayed through
excellence in obeying which I believe is what a citizen does in his private life and builds
reputation and in commanding well which is that citizen’s public life where he uses his
reputation from the private life and implements it in commanding well. This would make the
public office holder more powerful, and would enable him to influence his policies in a more
effective manner. This sort of managerial skill, should and probably had been used to maximize
the magistrates influence. However, this is all in theory and the feasibility of how exactly to
Conclusion
Over the span of a century, we see the introduction of philosophy and democracy and the
implementation of the democracy in a political framework through the experiment in the Polis.
In order for the Polis to remain fair, equal and as democratic as possible, the Athenians
implemented the lot system. On top of that, they put in mechanisms in place to ensure the
stability and permanence of the Polis. The rotation and scrutiny of public office holders was a
successful mechanism that ensure the public office holders did not abuse their power. Aristotle
realized the ingenuity of these mechanisms and highly regarded it in his work, The Politics.
However, there is a significant limitation in the argument provided above. A leader must be able
to adopt the perspective of the people but not anyone who has captured the perspective of the
must have a collusion of skills, abilities, and experiences. Therefore, not anyone can be good at
obeying and automatically be good at commanding. The Polis is considered as one of the most
successful experiments of democracy and used as a benchmark for every single form of modern
government.
i
Martin Breaugh, Introduction to Political Science, POLS 1000, ‘The Polis as a Way of Life’ (Sept.
17th, 2007)
ii
Martin Breaugh, Introduction of Political Science, POLS 1000, ‘The Limits of Ancient
Democracy’ (Sept. 26th, 2007)
iii
Manin, Bernard. (1997). The Principles of Representative Government. (pp. 11-14) New York:
Cambridge University Press
iv
Manin, Bernard. (1997). The Principles of Representative Government. (pp. 13) New York:
Cambridge University Press