Listen to me, folks, your Democracy is in danger. Trust me, no one knows more about this than I do, for I am the one who conceived it, brought it into being and gave it its name. “Democracy” is my creation, ask the Athenians. I am now claiming copyright: you cannot simply use it without caring about it. Listen to me!

What is Democracy? “People’s rule” has been practiced in many forms and under many labels, some more truthful than others. A good start to get to the heart of it would be to tell you about Solon’s “Good Government” (eupoliteia) and Cleisthenes’ “Equal Speaking Opportunity” (isegoria). But I save these for later, and draw on someone closer to you for now. Although not even speaking of “Democracy”, Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address (1863) nailed it, when ending with the resolve “that government of the people, by the people, for the people (shall not perish from the earth)”. Indeed, Democracy are three things in one: a possession of the people (which my fellow Athenians fought fiercely to defend), a burdensome task (less onerous though, if shared by all), and a promise of justice and prosperity (fulfilled in Athens under my leadership).

I am shouting it out aloud: Stop taking all the privileges for granted that come with Democracy, the finest of which is nothing less than the freedom to be you!

How many heroes gave their blood to pave the way for this treasure! But you are wasting it, allowing it to erode. No political structure is stable, if you dilute the glue that binds people together: trust. Not enough that external enemies have been undermining your trust in your democratic institutions and practices; even worse, the fiercest threat is the rapid growth of the radical fringes to the left and right. A stable society needs a strong center with shared values and interests. With cohesion diminishing, things are becoming ugly. Your own times – including year 2021, in which I speak to you – provide impressive examples ...

Not that my hometown Athens had been immune to outright attacks on Democracy. The century before my birth had its own history of political feuds escalating into civil wars. But then, early in my life, we Athenians stood together in a phalanx against the invading Persians at Marathon and later rowed our fleet to victory at Salamis. What manifestations of the incredible power that my people could wield, if united under wise leadership! And yet, inner tensions rose again soon thereafter. Only the Democracy that I created tamed infighting and made Athens the world leader.

Want to come on a journey with me? I’ll show you around in my time and place, and give you some inspiration for yours. I’ll pick you up in a week, same time, same place. Don’t hesitate to join me, you can trust me, because I am Pericles!

But come prepared: think about what your freedom is worth to you.

Good to see you again! You won’t regret joining me on a trip to Athens. But what is it? You look uncertain. Well, I cannot blame you: you have heard disparaging lies about me. Some call me “impostor”, others “plagiarist”. They pretend that I am stealing the laurels of Solon and Cleisthenes. How ignorant!

Did I not willingly acknowledge Solon and Cleisthenes as my two greatest models? The former deserves much praise for the wisdom and integrity of his leadership, truly building bridges between the rich and the poor, rather than taking only one side and causing inevitable bloodshed. And the latter’s genius allowed for a fair representation of every village in Attica thanks to the reform of the tribes (phylai), gave each citizen the right to question the motivations and effects of any bill (isegoria), ensuring equity in lawmaking and equality before the law (isonomia).

Your politicians should truly learn from them! There is too much ideology in the radical demands of your times, whether nationalist, neoliberal or socialist; too many decisions made in secret backrooms to cater particular interests; no accountability for long-term damages to society or the environment. (I shall rub such failures under your noses, while touring you through my beloved Athens).

However, despite the greatness of Solon and Cleisthenes, the word “Democracy” never crossed their lips. Although they did much to protect human and civil rights, they did not envision that the poor could be given an active role in the political process. Perhaps the time for this had not yet come in the 6th century. “Democracy” had to wait, and I was the one who saw the signs of the time!

Or do you trust those impertinent ignorants who deny the relevance of my message? They say that my merits belong to the past and that I have nothing to give to the present. They, too, show poor judgment. Did I not make it clear that some lessons on politics are timeless? Last week, I alluded to the fact that political constitutions come in various forms and under different names, and that one “Democracy” does not necessarily equal the other. But the essence of “Democracy” is that the PEOPLE OWN the state and its resources, and that this comes with both PRIVILEGES AND RESPONSIBILITY.

I see so much bedazzlement in your times. Does anyone still know who the PEOPLE – the supposed sovereign – actually are? Much of your politics is run behind the scenes by the super-rich. We called that plutokrateia – ‘Rule of Wealth’. Many pretend they live in a world community, unaware of the crucial role of citizenship. We, too, had such dreamers who mistook philosophy for politics (we called them kosmopolitai), but they were few and did not pose a danger then. Radical splinter groups aggressively shout “We are the people”, while a majority only thinks “No, you are not”. This majority errs twice, first by remaining silent, and second by hoping that they can exclude those deemed unworthy. It is more complicated than that.

Obviously, you need guidance. You can find it in Athens. Trust me, because I am Pericles, and I’ll take you there, but we have to postpone our trip for a week. Come back better prepared, reflect on who your PEOPLE are.

Goodness me, what is it now? O – you are upset because you found out that Athenian women were excluded from political rights and that we had a patriarchal society. You no longer want to visit my fellow Athenians for not playing by your rules ... I knew that this was coming, but I was hoping to gain some more time, and show you first that you should not miss a potential for learning from other civilizations, simply because you disagree with part of their laws and values. (Do you actually agree with all of the norms in place in your own society?)

What an effort have I made to express myself gender-neutrally so far! All in vain, you did not fall for it. So, yes, when I said “citizen”, I meant male citizen. Athenian women did have some legal status, played their minor roles in the economy and even major roles in religion, but they were systematically excluded from the political process. Just understand it was not yet within our horizon to give women a say in matters of war, taxation and jurisdiction. Only a comedian could fathom them in such roles (you may enjoy Aristophanes, Ekklesiazusai and Lysistrata). But that’s nothing specific to us Athenians or Greeks, it was the world-wide norm until the early-20th century. Even at the beginning of the 21st, you have much to do to achieve equal rights and opportunities, for women and other disadvantaged groups. Feel encouraged to find your inspiration for this endeavor from elsewhere, the best lessons that Athens has to teach you are on different matters.

What next? O, of course, that subject is likewise inescapable. Yes, we had slaves, most middle-class families would at least have one servant or maiden to help in the household and with farming, and these were entirely excluded from the political system. We Athenians at least gave our slaves more freedom to walk freely through our city, do business, enjoy the pubs (and brothels), so that often slaves could not be distinguished from freeborn people. (The Old Oligarch complains about it in his famous book.) But this is not what you want to hear, fair enough. And once we have confession time: slaves could even be used to fulfil sexual desires of their masters. I know, this sounds ugly to you, and it is nothing I am proud of, especially from hindsight. But understand that slavery was the norm in most societies well into the 19th century.

You can’t change the past, but perhaps learn from it for the present and change the future. So, be honest with yourself. Are you not aware that there had never lived as many slaves (that is people considered to be the property of others) as in your present? Do you know that even the most liberal democratic societies silently tolerate hundreds of thousands sex slaves in their midst? And only look at you yourself in a mirror: which of the clothes you are wearing are not possibly from forced (or underpaid) child labor from Eastern Asia?

So, what’s the point of judging without taking action?

Whew! Finally, here we are, walking up from our harbor, the Piraeus, to our city center (the asty). We are breathing the air of my hometown Athens during the glorious Fifty Years (Pentekontaetia). They began in my childhood, when our city lay in ruins, destroyed by Xerxes. But he could not break our spirits. We steered our ships to victory and then defeated the Persian land force together with the Spartans (480/79 BCE). An unprecedented recovery followed, and here we are, in the world’s bustling hub of art, business and innovation!

Follow me, we are now arriving on the Pnyx. On this hill plateau, my people have assembly (ekklesia) a couple of times every month. This place is the heart of our Democracy. In fact, talking and listening and responding, that’s the real heart of our Democracy. We engage in deliberations and disputes about what is best for our city and what is fair to each individual as well as imminent decision-making, say, on a construction project. We also love to talk about moral principles that define our goals or guide our actions. Poets and philosophers help us check our instincts: they train our judgement by confronting us with ethical dilemmas.

Athenians constantly debate anywhere in town and in the countryside: a handsome young athlete, a beautiful sculpture of Aphrodite, a brilliant astronomical theory – all of these, and much more, are the objects of our disputes. But we would never attach our souls exclusively to athletic contests or would make such a fuss about men running after a ball (let alone one that is egg-shaped). Most of your people are in football or hockey politics rather than taking an active part in the world that really matters for their health, their income and the future of their children. Are you actually aware that Roman oligarchs introduced sponsorship of “Bread and Circus Games” (panem et circenses) to win the favor of the crowd, and that later emperors used them precisely to detract the people from politics?

Our discussions on the Pnyx are held in plain view of the city lying underneath, while the Acropolis is emerging before our eyes. Here, we never lose sight of what is dear and sacred to us, what our ancestors have achieved and what we owe our children. Admittedly, not all our conversations are that solemn, it can be noisy, cheerful, nasty or fierce, but at the end of the day, every Athenian man has a chance to speak out his concerns, and then he has his vote. When we go home, the matter is decided, and we support our government in implementing it.

What about you? You grumble or look away, but you shrink away from taking action. Why is that? Perhaps because you think that your word does not matter anyways? How can you claim to live in a Democracy, if you don’t make your voice heard? But this is only one side of the game. Do you actually listen to your political opponents and respond to their views and arguments? Can you engage?

Finally, we are talking. Some of you are expressing disagreement – a great source of learning and progress! They say that I am “comparing apples with bananas: decision-making in a city state cannot seriously be compared with large modern nation states whose citizens count tens of millions. Representation is the only way to get things done, while maintaining a reasonable level of accountability.” Yes and no, I, Pericles, respond. Clearly, I realize differences between then and now, but clearly, such an analysis misses my points.

Are you aware that Athens is by far the largest city state of the Greek motherland? Most poleis have a citizen count closer to 1,000 than to 10,000, let alone 100,000. Athens surpasses the 50,000. Challenges to include a high number of citizens into a fair and even political process start quite early, think only of the difficulties of running a club with a few hundred members. Regardless of such obstacles, we Athenians also set the record of the highest rate of active political involvement. And I claim that this directly correlates with our economic and cultural prosperity, which is unprecedented in world history.

You should ask yourselves: how engaged and creative will members remain, unless they feel they have a stake in a society and form part of running the day-to-day operations? And how loyal will they be if they are reduced to taxpayers or soldiers and their individual voices are no longer heard when political goals are defined?

You don’t need magic to expand the level of participation, just determination and creativity. You won’t lose sight of this, once you understand that a thoughtful growth of the active citizen body can heal and strengthen the whole community. Learn from us Athenians:

Solon opened up the oligarchy of the few noble families (eupatridai, aristoi), sharing the same political rights with the newly rich, while taming their selfishness by summoning courts (heliaiai) from the upper middle classes, the hippeis – not really ‘knights’, but those who could afford to serve in the cavalry. In his time, this was a bold innovation, just falling short of revolution.

Cleisthenes was the one who fully included the middle class (zeugitai) into the political process, the backbone of our infantry forces (hoplitai). He gave them the decisive word in our state, freed from undue domination of the potentates. The number of active citizens rose tremendously, and he designed a three-layered system of government: local administration in the villages or city quarters (demes / demoi), which he mixed together into ten tribes (phylai), to ensure even representation at the polis level – while also strengthening the freedom of speech of every citizen (isegoria) at the ekklesia. You are looking at a forerunner of your subdivision between municipal, provincial and federal government. (OK, OK, I concede that the Romans were your more immediate model, as the Latin terms reveal – but they learnt from us.)

However, I, Pericles, even went much further. I’ll tell you about it next week. In the meantime, you may ask yourselves: what does your society do to encourage the involvement of the underprivileged? What efforts do your politicians make to maintain or enhance trust in the fairness and legitimacy of their political system? And most crucially: is your Democracy expanding or shrinking?

How did I, your trustworthy guide Pericles, become the expert of Democracy? Let me explain.

Democracy is not stable – it is constantly evolving, just as human societies are. Economic conditions develop and change: a period of prosperity may increase the number of middle-class or even rich families, and depending on whether your system grants political influence according to wealth, it may see major shifts of power, or at least demands of inclusion by new groups.

Other changes may be owing to increased migration into urban centers, the countryside or suburbs, phenomena (nearly) as typical of ancient as of modern societies. Many systems define the value of a man’s vote by his residence – a pragmatic choice. We speak of demoi, you of “riding” or “constituency”. Over time, in some demoi, population doubles, in others it shrinks. Democratic integrity would require adaptation, but I notice that many “modern” governments are hesitant to do so, because ruling parties tend to benefit – they took their cue from the more aristocratically-minded tribal system of the Romans, not the Athenian way for sure.

A few years ago, I heard a funny term from the Americans: there was a presidential candidate who won the “popular vote” by a few million, but still had to yield to the competitor. A similar thing happened this year at the Canadian federal elections: the party that came in second in votes gained the largest number of councilors (or MPs, as you might say). What is wrong with you? Do you think that the election of the top governor should be run like a beauty contest, where the popular vote gets you a ribbon, but the power is granted by an “expert” jury?

Speaking of which: many of your states have a variety of institutions, committees or even courts that can overturn the peoples’ decisions. I do not want to pretend that they all have similar structures or suffer from the same lack of legitimacy, but the obvious conclusion is that such institutions reflect mistrust in the people, the people’s representatives or the democratic process as such. The question is whether this mistrust is based on the fear that the people could do something outright dumb or dangerous, or just something against the interest of those who steer those committees and want to keep their own interest safeguarded. These are essential questions for Democracy both in your and my time, and I repeat my promise that much can be learned from us Athenians.

Despite his ground-breaking reforms, Cleisthenes did not touch the Areopagus, that is the council of former archontes (government officials), at their time all from among the upper classes. They sat on the hill of our War God Ares and had the last word. They could invalidate any decision of the ekklesia that appeared inappropriate to them. My friend Ephialtes and I thought that we should reduce the influence of that council, and the vast majority voted for us. However, turmoil was the result, and Ephialtes was killed in 462/1 BC. I did not give in and carried on with our work, so that the decision of the people against the Areopagus stood. This is the birth hour of Democracy!

But it was still fragile, and I had to explore further paths to expand and consolidate it. Stay tuned!

Thanks for staying with me, Pericles, your trusted guide!

Last week, we left off at a crucial moment of the history of Athens, if not the world. I had just lost my friend Ephialtes in our fight against the oligarchs of the Areopagus, and it would only be a question of time that they would fight back and come after me as well. I needed a remedy and, learning from Solon and Cleisthenes, the solution was a further expansion of the active citizen body. More Athenians wanted and deserved a stake in our polis, and the more could be engaged in an orderly way, the stronger and more resilient the community would be. The best recipe was to ban violence from the political system, where first arguments and then equal votes should rule.

So, it was under my stewardship that the poorer Athenians (thetes) who had been essential for our economic growth (and military expansion) truly became citizens (politai). They were called upon to take active roles – not only in the defense of our polis, by rowing our warships, but also by attending the assembly and making their concerns heard. Many accepted the invitation, because they were keen on making legislation and taxation fairer.

But I did not halt here. There was more to do. Once involvement went up, people started to notice how strong the influence of the oligarchs and wealthy still was, and to curb bribery, we introduced large jury courts that would give a timely and fair hearing to everyone (including non-citizens). Up to 6,000 citizens of all backgrounds served in those courts every year, hearing and discussing matters of private or public interest, and growing into an engaged and alert citizen body. To make this all work, I introduced a salary (misthos) for jurors and other office holders. This may be normal in your days, but, in mine, it was highly innovative to allow every Athenian to pause normal business and yet to be able to pay the bills.

That was a few years ago, and by now, there are barely any “poor Athenians” left, the vast majority has a decent and steady income. Our wealth is not generated from those salaries. Many people of your time are confused about our and their own systems, they are afraid it might only be one step from Democracy to Communism. How wrong they are!

The salaries we pay are quite small: with two or three obols about half of the pay of a worker, but enough to make pay for basic expenses. And we are not paying the thetes to attend the ekklesia (at least not yet, this would happen only in the 390s BCE under very particular circumstances). More importantly, the rich and the middle class are paying their fair share of taxes. No one seriously thinks of dispossessing those who have earned their wealth justly, as long as they contribute to society adequately. While your representative system allows for an increase of the few super-rich, our wealthy families maintain their status and are joined by many others who can make a fortune under even conditions.

That’s been a lot to take in, and we should take a break for now. But trust me, it will be worthwhile to come back, there is much more to explore in my hometown Athens.