Pericles' Athens would have called modern democracy an ochlocracy, or mob rule

Athenian democracy was far more restricted than its modern counterpart: it excluded women and slaves and required training in the liberal arts. That is why some writers call mob rule an ochlocracy.

The word democracy comes from Greek and means rule by the people. But that people was hardly universal. In Pericles' Athens, citizenship with the right to vote was confined to a small segment of the population: free, educated men. Women and slaves were left out. Seen through today's eyes, that system would look more like an enlightened oligarchy than a mass democracy.

## Who could vote in Athens

The right to vote was not automatic. It required training in the so-called liberal arts, later codified as seven: arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, music — understood as the science of harmonics — grammar, logic and rhetoric. Arithmetic was regarded as the foundational discipline. To this grounding were added the Aristotelian virtues, sixteen in all, among them courage, temperance, generosity, magnanimity, truthfulness, justice, prudence and wisdom.

## The "idiot" who stayed away from the assembly

The word idiot has its origin here. In Ancient Greece it referred to a citizen of the polis who lived apart from public life, taking no part in the assemblies or in other forms of democratic government. It was not an insult about intelligence: it was a description of abstention.

## Why some speak of ochlocracy

Ochlocracy means mob rule. Applying that term to modern democracy is a circulating hypothesis, not an established fact. What is certain is that the Athenian electoral base was minimal compared with today's. The comparison is a reminder that universal suffrage is a recent achievement, not a Greek trait.