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democracy when I know from both Madison and Hamilton in the Federalist Papers that it
was really mob rule, an example to be avoided at all costs in shaping a constitution for a
republic in search of stability and good government?” These are good questions.
The fact is Kleisthenes conceived and implemented democracy in Athens extending
power to the people. His proposal for social and political reforms, and his call for an
overthrow of oligarchy to install democracy, culminated in the Athenian revolution. He
laid the foundation for much that happened in Athens in the next 186 years. Although
Herodotus calls him the father of democracy, the relative obscurity of Kleisthenes is a
mystery. We do not even know how handsome he was! Upon inquiry, the Greek
department of the British Museum said no representation of Kleisthenes is known to
exist.
What did Kleisthenes do and why? What was his innovation? What was his game plan?
Why did he succeed? Why in 507 BC? Are there lessons for the modern times? What is
democracy? What are the preconditions for its success? While the factual questions are
more or less answered in the literature, the deeper questions require far more work.
This paper has three goals: (1) to explain the ascent of the Athenian democracy in the
language of game theory; (2) to reconsider the accomplishments of Kleisthenes, the
architect of the constitution that powered the Athenian democracy; and (3) to define
democracy based on the Athenian evidence. Let me elaborate on each point.
(1) The ascent of democracy in the language of game theory
At the heart of the rise of Athenian democracy is a long history of factional battles that in
its climactic period (near the end of the sixth century BC) may be represented as a
dynamic game of complete information. Embedded in the game are four problems facing
Kleisthenes:
(1a) How to dislodge the incumbent Athenian oligarchy representing a section of
the nobility?
(1b) How to strike a balance between warring factions of Athens (the people and
the nobility) to promote a united Athens for peace and security?
(1c) How to make credible promises to the warring factions?
(1d) What system of government to install such that it survives in the anarchic
world of polis? How?
Solutions to (1a) and (1c) allow Kleisthenes to attain power, (1b) and (1d) allow him and
his successors to retain power. Kleisthenes’s solution had two parts: tribal reforms to
transform the political landscape, and constitutional democracy to balance power
between competing factions. Note that (1a) to (1d) are precisely the questions that the
English faced before the Glorious revolution of 1660 (North and Weingast, 1989), and
the Americans faced at the time of the Philadelphia Constitutional Convention in 1787
(Riker, 19??).
Convention