La democracia ateniense en la era de Demóstenes

Athenian democracy of the 5th and 4th centuries BC. C. is the most famous and perhaps the most perfect example of direct democracy. Covering the period 403-322 a. C., Mogens H. Hansen focuses on the crucial last thirty years, which coincided with the political career of Demosthenes, analyzing the seven political institutions of the city: the Assembly, the nomothetai, the People's Court, the boards of magistrates, the Council of Five Hundred, the Areopagus and the Ho Boulomenos. He describes how the Athenians conceived of freedom, both as the ability to participate in the decision-making process and the right to live free from oppression by the state or other citizens. He examines Athenian democracy as a political system and as an ideology. In describing the former, he distinguishes between the three main decision-making bodies -the Assembly, the legislators, and the People's Courts- and the magistrates responsible for preparing the legislature's agenda and carrying out its decisions. In discussing Athenian democratic ideology, the book also makes an important distinction between the ideals of the democrats themselves and those imputed to them by critics of democracy.