Letter: Athenian democracy was highly questionable

From Stuart Leslie, Dorrigo, New South Wales, Australia

No one should base ideas of democratic reform on the belief that ancient Athenian “democracy” was an ideal form of government (5 October, p 32).

Athens hardly invented democracy: there were very large polities in Eurasia that show no trace of hierarchy and must have been organised by council and consensus thousands of years before Athens, whose government never involved more than 17 per cent of the population.

Socrates, held to be the wisest man in the world, didn’t think Athens better than any other government. It was plagued by factions, demagogues, threats, violence and continual attempts to get opponents exiled or put to death. It ordered the massacre of two cities because they withdrew from an alliance. It decided to invade Syracuse, resulting in the loss of an entire Athenian army, and forced the continuance of war against Sparta, leading to final defeat. It wasn’t a great form of government, rather very irrational and ultimately self-destructive.