The Polis: From Greece to an African Athens

Abstract

It is often said that the history of democracy began in ancient Greece. Also, we owe most of our notions of the “public” to Athenian invention. In the Greek polis, all citizens apart from women and slaves were entitled to participation in the political life of the community. To be sure, the Greek invention of democracy in its classical form does have a number of positive attributes. The structure of the public sphere allowed for direct political participation. Also, the practical demands of civic participation encouraged the type of education necessary for an active political engagement with the public realm.