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[Daniel Rose]

<SNIP>

It seems an earlier model of democracy is being pushed here - a few of
the
right blokes get together and debate things in Athens and the society
relies on the labour of slaves and women.


Well, they weren't the right blokes, they were any/all blokes, but of
course you're correct about the womens and slaves.

From
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/greeks/greekdemocracy_03.shtml, but
other sources agree:


"The second key difference is the level of participation. Our democracy
is representative - we choose politicians to rule for us. Athenian
democracy was direct and in-your-face. To make it as participatory as
possible, most officials and all jurymen were selected by the lot. This
was thought to be the democratic way, since election favoured the rich,
famous and powerful over the ordinary citizen. From the mid fifth
century, office holders, jurymen, members of the city's main
administrative Council of 500, and even Assembly attenders were paid a
small sum from public funds to compensate them for time spent on
political service away from field or workshop."


Pause for a moment and consider an Australian Parliament drawn at random
from the population.