Abstract
Becoming a citizen in Athens involved being accepted by a number of small groups. Small groups were especially good at gathering information about citizens, and had strong incentives to do so. Religious, kinship, and political groups confirmed that candidates were Athenians in terms of cult, descent, and civic status. Using small groups allowed Athenians to do without a large bureaucracy, and thus to avoid an undue concentration of power and information in central institutions. Confirming and re-confirming citizens in small groups also built up trust, which in turn smoothed the functioning of the city’s democratic institutions.
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