Source: The Daily Economy
by Jon Miltimore
“In the 1960s, archaeologists digging at Athens discovered thousands of pottery fragments in a landfill. The shards of pottery were the remains of ballots from a 471 BCE election, but the fragments were not votes to send candidates to political office. They were votes to banish citizens, a process known as ostraca that involved exiling citizens for a period of ten years. … Banishing citizens by vote is an extreme policy, but one can find a certain logic to ostraca. Since the rights of Athenians were subject to the whims of the state, and the state was controlled by the people, demagogues posed a genuine threat to the system and to Athenians. The problem, of course, is that ostraca violated the individual rights of Athenian citizens. The natural right to privacy, due process, and free speech do not come with a ‘threat to democracy’ clause.” (12/02/24)