Athenian Polis and Residents Autonomy

The ancient Athenian polis is the prototype of democracy. Athens found the essence of democracy in the rule of the people, and had direct democracy and lottery systems as institutional devices to realize it. This Athenian democracy is called a prototype democracy. prototype democracy is only possible in small political communities. On the other hand, most democratic countries today adopt representative democracy. Representative democracy regards the essence of democracy not as the rule of the people but as the election by people. This change in meaning about the essence of democracy was made by medieval Scholar scholars such as Thomas Aquinas. Representative democracy has enabled democracy at a large national level. However, there is a problem that the rule of the people is transformed into the rule of the elite. Even if representative democracy is inevitable at a large national level, prototype democracy may be possible at a small unit such as eup, myeon, and dong. The institutionalization of residents autonomy is one of the ways. Before that, we look at the case of Athens, where Prototype democracy blossomed brilliantly in the most complete form in history. Athens’ democracy has never developed in a short period of time. Athens was an early aristocratic society. However, from around the 7th century B.C., commoners began a long march toward democracy against the aristocracy. After Solon’s democratic reform and Claystenes’ democratic establishment, Pericles finally completed democracy around the 5th century B.C. The political systems of Athens include ekklesia, boule, heliastai, and the administrator, which are quite elaborately institutionalized. Athens’ political system was also a product of long-standing accumulated changes and reforms. Korea’s residents autonomy has neither identity nor substance. However, the selection of members of the residents’ association by lottery and the general meeting of residents, which are being carried out in the pilot project of the residents‘’ association, contain seeds of new possibilities. This is because the selection of members of the residents’ association by lottery, which is a lottery system, corresponds to the selection of members of boule, and the general meeting of residents, which is a direct democracy, corresponds to ekklesia. Therefore, it is necessary to establish the identity of residents autonomy by using prototype democracy as the ideological basis of residents autonomy, and to develop the residents’ association into a practical residents autonomy organization in Eup, Myeon, and Dong through institutionalization of residents autonomy. In that case, Korea can move toward a true democratic republic where the election by people and the rule of the people are realized at the same time, with representative democracy at the national and local governments levels and prototype democracy at the eup, myeon, and dong levels.