ISOCRACY AS A CONCEPT:
1.1. Equality of power or strength, equivalence
2.2. Equality of rights, equality, isonomy, democratic polity, antithesis of tyranny (“those who destroy isonomy,” Herodotus).

ΙSOCRACY AND DEMOCRACY:
Democracy has three basic characteristics
♦ Isegoria: (Equal speaking time for all citizens)
♦ Isonomia: (Equality of citizens before the law).
♦ Isocracy: (Equal weight of citizens in state decisions, i.e., equal political rights).
Additional characteristics of democratic functioning: (The 3 Ds)
♦ Transparency of public data.
♦ Publicity of all public functions.
♦ Consultation before decision-making.
Based on the above criteria, we can classify all hydrocarbon-producing states in a table according to their degree of democracy.

THE BASIC PILLARS OF DEMOCRACY ACCORDING TO THE ANCIENT GREEKS

Written by
Antonis Antonakos

ΕBecause there is an increasing lack of democracy today, I think it is good to analyze a little what happened in ancient Greece with the democracy of that time, to compare and try to emulate its good aspects!
The Athenian democracy was based on a government of laws and not of individuals.
The importance of this detail is evident from the fact that the law is impersonal and impartial, while individuals are subject to temptation. Aristotle, in fact, in “Politics” (Bekker p. 1287a verse 32) states that “without desire, the law is mind,” which is why it is impersonal.
The equality of all Athenian citizens before the law
Productive dialogue through the exchange of views on the resolution of issues.
The plurality of political opinions, through which an issue can be questioned, criticized, modified, or revised.
The recognition and protection of all human rights and freedoms, because Aristotle in his Politics (Z, 1317a) states that “the basic principle of democracy is freedom, because this is what they usually repeat, that in democracy only they enjoy this freedom, and because they say that the main purpose of democracy is freedom.”
The discipline of the minority in the decisions of the majority.

OTHER FORMS OF EQUALITY

ΆOther forms of equality and fundamental principles of democracy were: “isonomia” (equal rights), “isegoria” (equal speech), “isogonia” (equal birth), “isokratia” (equal rule), “isophoria” (equal vote) and “isotimia” (equal value).
Eisonomia was the oldest name for democracy.
Iseogoria was the right of all citizens to speak equally in the municipal assembly, arguing and developing opinions on any issue.
Isogonia was the non-discrimination of origin (humble or not) or gender, “while we and our people, all born brothers from one mother, consider it unworthy to be rulers and slaves of one another. On the contrary, our natural isogonia leads us to seek natural equality according to the law.
(Plato’s Menexenus: Stephanus, p. 239, chap. a, lines 1-3).
Equality means that the state belonged entirely to all citizens. “So all the others were silent, and only Socrates of Corinth said the following: Men of Lacedaemon, surely the sky will fall down to the earth and the earth will float above the sky, men will live in the sea and fish where men once lived, since you are ready to restore to the cities tyrannical regimes, of which there is nothing more unjust and bloodthirsty in the world” and “these things we number as not equal, since they are not equal.” (Timaeus, Excerpts, p. 208).
Equality is the equality of votes [dia tis isopsifias apeleuteo (Dion. Al. 7,64)] and, above all, equal voting rights “the votes being counted quickly and coming to an equal number.” (Sch. Euripides). Isotimia means that offices and honors belong to all: “In a democracy: equality before the law and equality of rights, so that the poor, the lowly, and the humble may speak freely against the rich and those who have power.” (Comments on Demosthenes Oration 22, Section 91c, lines 5-7).

CITIZEN ACTIVATION AND PARTICIPATION IN PUBLIC AFFAIRS

This parameter, the activation of citizens to participate in public affairs, was so important that Solon, as Aristotle informs us in “Aristotle’s Constitution of Athens, 8,VIII,5.”
“Seeing that the city was often in turmoil, and that some of the citizens, out of indifference (abstaining and) choosing to leave things to chance, he enacted a special law for them, according to which anyone who, while the city was in turmoil, shall not intervene armed on behalf of one of the opposing factions, shall be deprived of his political rights and shall not be entitled to participate in the administration of the state.”
In practice, this meant that politically indifferent citizens, those who did not actively participate in the affairs of the state, were considered “dishonorable,” that is, deprived of their political rights. Thucydides also mentions the same issue in Book II (40.2): “For we alone consider those who take no part in public affairs to be not merely inactive, but useless.” [=Because only we consider those who are completely absent from politics to be not merely inactive, but useless.

DEMOCRACY IN ACTION IN EVERY SITUATION

Democracy was put into practice in every case that arose, such as in the building of the city of Piraeus, where the first urban planner of humanity, the famous Hippodamus of Miletus, was active, about whom Aristotle informs us:
“Hippodamus, son of Euryphon of Miletus (who divided cities by roads and divided Piraeus), was the first of those who had never been involved in political affairs attempted to write about the ideal form of government. Hippodamus therefore set the population of the city at ten thousand men, divided into three parts. One third he designated as sacred land. Another third as public land, and the third as private. The sacred land was to be used for the payment of religious expenses, the public land was to be used to support the warriors, and the private land belonged to the farmers. [Aristotle, Politics, Bekker, page 1267b.]
This great scientist therefore built Piraeus, whose urban plan served as a model for all cities of the classical era, dividing the city’s land into exactly equal zones. “Neighborhoods” were built, i.e., small groups of houses adjacent to each other, on plots of exactly 240 square meters for each house.
This idea, implemented by Hippodamus, belongs to Phaleas of Chalcedon, who, as Aristotle informs us, “That is why Phaleas of Chalcedon was the first to introduce this institution into his constitution. For, as he says, the property of citizens must be equal” (Aristotle, Politics, Bekker, page 1266a, lines 39-40).
Here, then, we see the full implementation of equality and democracy in practice.
The houses were built in rows, with dividing walls and facing south. And as excavations have shown, they were dwellings for free citizens. Each house was a two-story detached house with a living room, kitchen, guest room, and courtyard.

CONTRIBUTION OF DEMOCRACY TO THE REDUCTION OF SOCIAL INEQUALITY

Democracy closed the gap between rich and poor, reducing social inequality: Euripides in “The Suppliants” said that:
“There are three classes within the state: One is the rich citizens. Nothing good comes from them, and their constant desire is for (ever) more. Those who are poor and lack the necessities of life are to be feared. They are led astray by envy and, as they are misled by the words of malicious demagogues, they throw bitter arrows at the rich. The middle class holds the states together, because it preserves the order that will be established. (This is the order that the government is trying to destroy today. And it has forgotten that by destroying the balance of society, it is undermining the democratic exercise of power.)
The defense of democracy was enshrined in the law of the public prosecutor established by Solon, which stipulated that every citizen could denounce a ruler who was not consistent with his duties and neglected them. (Aristotle Fragment 434).
I have nothing further to add, dear friends…
The conclusions, comparisons, and decisions are yours.
Bibliography
Antoniou A. Antonakou – Konstantinos Spinos: “Freedom of Speech and Democracy – the miracle of ancient Greece,” AMBER Publications, 2003.