Unlikely Cradles of Democracy

Recent trip stirs thoughts about why Greek philosophers and our founders embraced egalitarian ideals for governing while maintaining societal limits on equality

By Hon. Jeffrey K. Sprecher

As a belated graduation present to our oldest grandchild, we offered to take her on a trip to Europe. She chose Greece as the destination. My wife, Jane, and I are glad she did. It was a very educational and fun trip, which prompted me to contemplate why these men in Greece and centuries later, on a separate continent, these men in Philadelphia selected democracy as a form of government in their respective countries.

Democracy in Greece and in the U.S.A.

The Golden Age of Greece was from 977 B.C. to 431 B.C. It was the start of democracy, when the advanced civilization of Greece began making its lasting contributions to the western world. The city-state of Athens held the same relevance and importance to the democracy of Greece as Philadelphia does to our Constitution and democracy in the United States. Why did these two countries each adopt democracy as their form of government? Why did the Athenian leadership propose and then adopt a constitutional democracy is as much a conundrum as is the question why our Founding Fathers in 1787 wrote and adopted a constitutional democracy. Do these men of either time appear to be the kind of people who would adopt and approve a government of the people, for the people, by the people? Both the U.S. and Greece had oligarchies in which power and control was held only by wealthy men. These men were the “haves” in society, owners of large spreads of land and legions of slaves! Neither government allowed women to vote, and in Greece, it was only the men who were permitted to own land. In the colonies, on the other hand, being a freeholder was not difficult because land was plentiful and cheap; however, owning land was not the only requirement for voting in many colonies. No males under the age of 21, females, or slaves had the right to vote. In some colonies, many Jews and Catholics were barred from casting ballots. Pennsylvania was an exception thanks to William Penn’s Quaker heritage, which emphasized the free exercise of one’s personal faith.

In the U.S., the Founding Fathers had to first reject their original assignment of establishing Articles of Confederation to keep power with the states, not with a national government. Not only did they modify their assignment and instead adopt

a democracy, they proposed a democracy with a strong central government of three equal branches that checked and balanced each other – the opposite of their original task. Both countries adopted a constitution that allowed slaves to be legally owned and women to remain disenfranchised. Many contradictions abound; but for some reason in both countries, instead of keeping power to themselves, they created democracy. But why?

Divine Intervention?

In Athens, statesman Solon drew up a code of law. He was followed 50 years later by another Athenian statesman (in 508 B.C.), Cleisthenes, who wrote what became the Athenian constitution. Was a deity the reason? Furthermore, why did the Greeks then expand voting rights for the first time, from only landowners to all free men? By so doing, they gave every male citizen the right to serve on a 500-man council through a simple free election.

History books tell us that the people of Greece believed that human-like gods and goddesses controlled their everyday life. Did these gods influence the founding fathers of Greece? Were our Founding Fathers’ similarly influenced by Christianity? Why wouldn’t their decisions, which were of great magnitude, be influenced directly and/or indirectly by divine intervention? Why wouldn’t they believe that they were doing god’s work?

Ye Gods!

Perhaps Zeus, the king of the gods (and, of course, male), was influenced by beautiful Athena, the goddess of wisdom. Did the goddess of wisdom know all? Did she know very well that this is a man’s world and that for equality to occur the men would have to smarten up eventually? Did she know that it needed to be done in small steps because “with democracy” she understood that the men would eventually become humanized and enlightened? As we know, democracy in Greece was ordained during the Golden Age when men became educated. When great thinkers, philosophers, scientists, mathematicians, artists, musicians, writers, and bards roamed the city-state. She had to be aware that even men know that wisdom begets wisdom and that from all this education and refinement, someone would have an epiphany and treat women as equals or at least eventually give women the right to vote. And this was 2,500 years ago; it took 140 years post-constitutional ratification before women in the U.S. earned the right to vote!

Homogenous City-States

Was Democracy the result of a homogenous city-state? Democracy in Greece developed chiefly from the more advanced city-states, such as Athens. A city-state is a geographic area of similar culture and includes the city, its surrounding towns and villages and its contiguous farmland. The city-state era began in Greece, in 800 to 700 B.C. In both city-states and in the U.S. colonies, the people were similar; the same dialect was spoken, and they followed the same customs. Each was patriotic and loyal to their community and valued their freedom and “the way we do things here.” Generally speaking, throughout ancient Greek city-states, the people referred to their country as Hellas, their nationality as Hellenes, and distinguished themselves from others, whom they called barbarians. In that regard, they called citizens from other city-states outsiders. Any person from neighboring city-states was a non-citizen. No wonder the city-states were not united in ancient Greece. Neither would be our states if it was not for our Founding Father and their rejection of their task of adopting Articles of Confederation.

We know that to make someone firm in their beliefs, you need only have them live in the same house or at least the same town or region. On the other hand, if you want to open someone’s thoughts, beliefs, and actions, send them away to another land and expose him to a different culture, society, religion and language. Local people everywhere are united in their customs, mores, beliefs, and actions and probably will remain so if they remain local. Consider for a moment, superstitions, which are defined as a belief, practice or rite held in spite of evidence to the contrary. It results from ignorance of the laws of nature: physical sciences, logic, reasoning, truth and mathematics. It is further defined as a hopeless or abject state of mind, resulting from ignorance or irrationality. Most people of ancient Greece were superstitious, and they were superstitious of philosophers and their theories. In 399 B.C., an Athenian jury sentenced Socrates to death for showing disrespect of the gods.

Although strongly patriotic and loyal to their own city-state, the Greeks did join with other city-states to create a larger force. For example, during the Persian War in 400 B.C., the city-states

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The 1981 James Bond film "For Your Eyes Only" made Cyril's Monastery in Meteora a popular tourist destination.

of Greece united to defend and defeat the Persians, but the unity was short lived. Athens, the city-state with the greatest navy, then fought Sparta, the most powerful army. First Athens dominated, then Sparta; but soon Thebes, another city-state, defeated Sparta, and it was downhill from there until Alexander the Great conquered all of Greece. But the spread of Greek culture and norms influenced the world during and after his reign.

Warfare, as with any ancient country, continued. Eventually, the Romans controlled Greece. Fortunately, even during that time, Greek intellect, culture, art, and even religion lived on, and the Greek way of life was spread by the Roman Empire. The great thinkers and teachers created academic subjects that live on and influence our lives today. Higher education covered the study of philosophy, which is Greek for love of wisdom. It also included the study of science, medicine, law, public speaking, music, and physical education. At first, only the male children of citizens were entitled to an education. But that too changed over time. We owe Greece a great debt for our government, education, philosophy, science, and our great appreciation and love of the arts and literature. Greek literature is both the oldest and the most influential in the entire Western world. For we lovers of the law, the greatest gift to the world is democracy, trial by a jury of its citizens, and government that strives for equality and justice for all. The gifts from Greece have made humanity more civilized and more equal.

In sum, Greece gave the world democracy and advanced culture and somehow, 2,000 years thereafter, democracy was bestowed on the U.S. But did you know, nearly 200 years later, America was able to repay Greece? First, some facts on the recent history of the world. Greece became a republic as of 1828. Four years later, President Kapodistrias was assassinated. The Greek Republic recovered and was sustained for nearly 100 years. Then came the political chaos of 1923 to 1936, which was followed by World War II. Italian troops invaded Albania on Good Friday 1939. The Albanian king fled south to Greece. Mussolini, Italy’s dictator, resolved to take Greece. He sent his Albanian army south, over the border, on October 28, 1940; but in less than two months, Greece forced them back into Albania. But that wasn’t the end.

Greece suffered terribly from all the years of war and eventually asked Great Britain for help. Great Britain responded with help in March 1941; but that too was short-lived because the Nazi army invaded Greece one month later in April 1941. Hitler succeeded where Mussolini failed. A swastika was flown above the Acropolis, in the center of Athens.

Great Britain was able to delay the Nazi attack so that it was not successful in Greece until June 22, which was significant because that delay compounded. The Nazis were behind schedule to attack the U.S.S.R. and, thus, they suffered through the Russian winter, which aided greatly in the defeat of the Nazi army. Germany held Greece until the end of World War II. Greece was just one of many countries that suffered the carnage of war on a scale never before witnessed in human history.

The Civil War

In the shadow of World War II, Greece endured a civil war. The battle was for control of Greece. Because Greece was hurting so badly, the opportunity presented itself for communism to take root and reshape its government. Whenever there is such destitution, communism lurks in the shadows to seize control. The civil war, waged against communist guerillas, dragged on from 1941 until October 16, 1949. Greece’s civil war was just as catastrophic as the toll the nation suffered in WWII. Almost 80,000 people died, and a million people lost their homes.

The U.S. Becomes a World Leader

Because Great Britain could not rescue Greece, the U.S. had little choice but to fulfill Greece’s plea for help. The Truman Doctrine provided the leadership, but it wasn’t easy. The U.S. had been an isolationist country for 150 years. But one of our allies in WWII, Soviet President Joseph Stalin, became an enemy during the Cold War. That forced our hand. The irony is that this ally of the U.S. fighting against Hitler had promised fellow ally Winston Churchill he would not interfere with post-war Greece in exchange for Great Britain not interfering with the Soviet Union’s desire for Romania. A contract? However, Stalin disregarded the agreement and thus the desperate communique of April 21, 1949 to the U.S. for aid to avert the takeover. The Cold War against communism was first fought in the Greek theater. Through the Truman Doctrine, financial aid was delivered by the U.S. to rebuild Greece, so free government could prevail against an attempted communist takeover. After WWII, Winston Churchill said, “Henry Truman more than any other man saved civilization” because American isolationism ended with the Truman Doctrine.

Greece Today

Greece again has a history as a free nation from 1974 when the most recent dictatorship ended, and the referendum affirmed the creation of a Greek Republic. Greece joined the European Union in 1981, only seven years after the official creation of the Republic. Perhaps now the beleaguered country will remain free and at peace.

Greek Literature and Philosophy

Greece gave us Plato, Socrates, Homer, and Plato’s student Aristotle, who went on to teach Alexander the Great. These men loved the pursuit of wisdom by intellectual investigation and moral self-discipline. Greece also was the first country to record history. It did so through lengthy prose, debate, drama, and poetry. Most of our knowledge of the world is from Greek literature.

Geography

A myth that originated in ancient Greece tells that when the world was created and the good, fertile farmland was distributed throughout the world, all of the rocks that were left over were poured over Greece. Needless to say, the land is rocky and mountainous, with hills and peaks always in sight. The geography of Greece contributed to the development of separate, independent city-states because of the isolation caused by the mountains. This also helps to explain why the Acropolis in Athens is built on a high hill and why many city-states are likewise located on high ground surrounded by a wall, obviously for protection. Acropolis means high city; at its center is usually located the agora, a large marketplace meeting area, where the people retreated for safety when attacked. The Acropolis still exists today in the center of Athens, 5,000 years later.

Author’s Note: Rather than list the itinerary of our recent trip to Greece, I attempted to briefly tell its history and trace the roots of how democracy was established. We spent most of our time in Athens and then traveled north to the Mountains of Meteora by train, a four-hour ride that covered more than 200 miles. Starting in 900 A.D., Meteora’s mountains became famous for religious reclusion from civilization. By the 14th and 15th centuries, Meteora was known as the site for monasteries, located on the top of towering rock formations several hundred feet from the ground. Forty years ago, the James Bond movie, “For Your Eyes Only,” was filmed in one of the monasteries. Meteora’s fame and popularity as a tourist attraction have grown since.

The Honorable Jeffrey K. Sprecher serves as a Berks County Court of Common Pleas Court judge.

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