Concept in Definition ABC

In the Athens of century V a. C the first form of organization was created politics in which the people participate in the decision-making of the city. Through an assembly system, the Athenians proposed laws and, consequently, the popular will was what determined policy. This model received the name of democracy, a word formed by two terms: “démos” means “people” and “cratos” means “government or power”.

To philosophically justify the idea of ​​democracy, it was necessary to contemplate two ideas or principles: isonomy and isegory.

Analyzing the idea of ​​isonomy in the context of Athenian democracy

The prefix "iso" means "equal" and the root "nomos" means "law or rule”. In this way, in the context of Athenian democracy, it was understood that all citizens were equal before the law. With this principle they opposed the previous aristocratic and monarchical systems in which a few enjoyed legal privileges, while a majority lacked them.

In Athenian democracy the

leadership political was no longer a matter of inheritance or lineage, since what was important was the individual ability to convince others in assemblies. For this to be possible, it was necessary to have two new ideas: we are all equal before the law (isonomy) and we all have right to vote (isegoría).

For the Athenians, democracy only made sense if the principle of isonomy was respected, that is, the legal equality of all citizens

At this point it should be noted that not all Athenians were considered citizens, since women, slaves and foreigners were outside of this category.

The fact that all citizens were equal in their rights was not a matter accepted by all. The philosopher Plato opposed democracy and therefore isonomy, since he understood that only the intellectual elites (the philosophers) were qualified to exercise power.

Aristotle also censured the ideals associated with democracy, as he considered that they fostered demagoguery and corruption.

The principle of isonomy can stay on paper

It is true that the equality of all before the law is a recognized right in today's society. However, there are abundant examples where a formal democracy ends up imposing a political system in which equality is simply a statement of intent or directly a fiction (clientelism and nepotism are two tendencies that are directly opposed to the principle of equality).

For this reason, some political scientists and philosophers propose to overcome the ideal of formal equality of democracy through a more participatory political model in which being equals stops being something formal and becomes something real. In this sense, two visions are proposed that seek to renew the implication of the citizenship in public life: participatory democracy and deliberative democracy.

Fotolia photos: Kulichok / Oleksandr Moroz

Topics in Isonomy