Issue Reaction Paper

Introduction

The 4th and 5th century has been deemed as the Greek miracle because it was the era when

democracy and philosophy was invented in Greecei. It was also the time when influential figures

of western culture resided in ancient Greece such as Euripides, Sophocles, Plato, Socrates and

Aristotle. We see the emergence of democracy and it being practiced in a political framework for

the first time. Aristotle, in his work on political philosophy, The Politics, talks about Athenian

democracy and highly regarded the city-state system. He also pointed out the mechanisms that

were in place to ensure the equality of the democratic system. One of these mechanisms was that

of rotation of public office holders. Aristotle realised the need for such a mechanism to be in

place and was famously quoted as writing, “The excellence of a good citizen is to be capable of

commanding well and obeying well.”ii One may argue that this is not an effective way of

governing; however, I support this quote because from a practical point of view one needs to

experience being a follower to be an effective leader. Historically, I support the quote because

the magistrates that were picked by lot in the Polis in Ancient Greece were rotated annually to

enforce the rule that they were not only obliged to govern when picked but also obliged to obey

and be governed by the policies they themselves might have implemented during their stay in

office. And theoretically, a good leader is someone who not only tells others to do the work but

leads by example and a leader needs to be able to do this, in theory, to maximize his influence

and effectiveness.

Development Part 1

The quote stated above, taken from Aristotle’s Politics, is a good description of the

implications of the democratic system and the different mechanisms in place at that time. The
quote is essentially trying to say that a public office holder must have the trait to not only

command well but also obey well because once their term is over in a year, these public office

holders or magistrates will go back to obeying instead of commanding. iiiThe position of the

Aristotle is imbedded in the quote itself because the quote specifically says that if a citizen

commands well and obeys well, that citizen is displaying excellence towards the Polis. Aristotle

was a philosopher of politics and greatly admired the newfound democratic lot system which

offered equality to all the citizens within the political framework. He was in favour of the

mechanism of rotation and also evidently believed that to ensure equality and factionalism steps

needed to be taken and implemented. In the case with the Polis, rotation of public office holders

was one of those steps that needed to be implemented to ensure the stability of this one of a kind

democratic system.

Development Part 2

Similar to Aristotle’s position, I support the quote made in Politics because of an

overriding practicality in the implementation of this statement. It is common sense to think that if

a person has never been affected by a particular situation or event, chances are that this person

will likely not be a good leader when dealing with that situation. For example, assuming there

were no restrictions to run for prime minister of Canada, a person who has been born and raised

in a foreign country for most of his/her life would probably not decide to run for prime minister.

One of the reasons would be the issue of popularity and wealth but the overriding issue would be

that this person was never a “stakeholder” and was never a citizen of the nation to experience

exactly what was needed from the leader. This lack of knowledge would handicap this person if

somehow he was elected as the prime minister. I feel that one needs to be a stakeholder and

needs to experience any situation or event first hand for that person to have adequate knowledge
and experience to command the nation if the person was selected to govern in an influential

position. In the Polis, through the lot system, the issues of popularity and wealth were non-

existent and the only major issue was that of being a citizen or stakeholder of the Polis to be able

to be nominated and selected for public office.

A historical example of a situation which demanded both qualities of commanding and

obeying well would be the selection and rotation of public office holders within the Polis in

ancient Athens. There were 700 public offices that required a magistrate to run the office. Of

these 700 public offices, 100 or so offices required technical knowledge and background and

these public office holders were elected positions. The rest of the 600 were chosen by the lot

system and had a term limit of one year.iv This rule or mechanism of rotation of magistrates

within the Polis helped to eliminate the possible abuse of power if a corrupt public office holder

was picked. Another mechanism was that of scrutiny which meant that after the public office

holder had completed his term, they would have to present themselves in front of the Assembly

frequently. These two mechanisms worked successfully in eliminating factionalism and

promoting the overall good of the Polis. This was because the public office holders did not have

enough time to abuse their power within the one year term provided and even if they did

somehow abuse it, they would have to be subject to scrutiny by the Great Assembly which would

figure would most likely figure out if the one year of power somehow only addressed their own

needs and not of the Polis as a whole. However, there were ways in which these magistrates

could circumvent these mechanisms and this was when the need for rotation was truly admired.

This was because even though magistrates could command the office with their own agenda,

they had to keep in mind the fact that they soon would be the ones on the obeying side and had to

ensure their future and in that securing the future of the Polis as a whole.
 In a theoretical sense, I believe that for a leader to be as effective as possible they need to

lead by example. Humans have a tendency to favour people who have generated positive results

in the past. The public respects and listens to people who have a strong reputation. In the context

of ancient Athens, within the Polis, the excellence of the citizen was displayed through

excellence in obeying which I believe is what a citizen does in his private life and builds

reputation and in commanding well which is that citizen’s public life where he uses his

reputation from the private life and implements it in commanding well. This would make the

public office holder more powerful, and would enable him to influence his policies in a more

effective manner. This sort of managerial skill, should and probably had been used to maximize

the magistrates influence. However, this is all in theory and the feasibility of how exactly to

implement it is up for argument.

Conclusion

Over the span of a century, we see the introduction of philosophy and democracy and the

implementation of the democracy in a political framework through the experiment in the Polis.

In order for the Polis to remain fair, equal and as democratic as possible, the Athenians

implemented the lot system. On top of that, they put in mechanisms in place to ensure the

stability and permanence of the Polis. The rotation and scrutiny of public office holders was a

successful mechanism that ensure the public office holders did not abuse their power. Aristotle

realized the ingenuity of these mechanisms and highly regarded it in his work, The Politics.

However, there is a significant limitation in the argument provided above. A leader must be able

to adopt the perspective of the people but not anyone who has captured the perspective of the

stakeholders can be a successful leader. To be a leader, to command, and to be influential one

must have a collusion of skills, abilities, and experiences. Therefore, not anyone can be good at
obeying and automatically be good at commanding. The Polis is considered as one of the most

successful experiments of democracy and used as a benchmark for every single form of modern

government.
i
Martin Breaugh, Introduction to Political Science, POLS 1000, ‘The Polis as a Way of Life’ (Sept.
17th, 2007)
ii
Martin Breaugh, Introduction of Political Science, POLS 1000, ‘The Limits of Ancient
Democracy’ (Sept. 26th, 2007)
iii
Manin, Bernard. (1997). The Principles of Representative Government. (pp. 11-14) New York:
Cambridge University Press
iv
Manin, Bernard. (1997). The Principles of Representative Government. (pp. 13) New York:
Cambridge University Press