Dissolving the Demos

The Destruction of Democracy as Destruction of the Political Community – or: How Democracy Dies in Silence

Abstract

In his History of the Peloponnesian War, Thucydides describes the effects of the anti-democratic revolution of 411 BC on the Athenian people in detail. According to him, the well-targeted terrorism orchestrated by the oligarchic conspirators led to a complete disintegration of the political community: the Athenians lost all sense of security and trust in each other and were unable to act together. Therefore, it seems significant that Thucydides repeatedly characterises the coup of the Four Hundred as a dissolution (katalysis) of the demos rather than of democracy. This peculiar wording is used not only by Thucydides but also by other authors such as Lysias, Xenophon, or Aristotle; it refers to a specific concept of democracy according to which the transformation of the democratic order did not take place on an abstract constitutional level. For the Athenians, the transformation of their political order meant the very concrete disintegration of their civic community as a politically organised body capable of acting together. Their experience of democratic voices being silenced in the face of anti-democratic discourse and action bears a striking resemblance to current democratic experiences