Alex Guerrero (baseball)

• It was almost perpetually at war, slavery was routine and women could only expect a low status in society.
• However, there is one important sense in which ancient Greeks were more advanced than modern European societies: their sophisticated political systems.
• The citizens of ancient Athens developed a political system that was more genuinely democratic than the present day UK or US.
• Our modern concept of democracy is actually a degradation of the original Greek concept and has very little in common with it.

Ancient democratic practices

• The ancient Athenians were very aware of the danger of unsuitable personalities attaining power.
• This was a way of ensuring that ordinary people were represented in government, and of safeguarding against corruption and bribery.
• Different members of the group would take responsibility for different areas and would act as a check on each other’s behaviour.
• The ancient Athenians also practised a system of ostracism, not dissimilar to some egalitarian hunter-gatherer groups (who were also aware of the danger of alpha males dominating the group).

A return to direct democracy

• In 2014, Alexander Guerrero, professor of philosophy at Rutgers University, published an influential paper advocating what he called “lottocracy” as an alternative to representative democracy.
• In this system, government is undertaken by “single-issue legislatures” assemblies that focus on specific issues such as agriculture or healthcare.
• Direct democracy means less individual power and more checks and limitations to individual authority.