69.
the Attic demos: *
a reference to Athenian democracy (Athens being a polis of the region of Attica); ordinary citizens made up the ecclesia (popular assembly) meeting in the agora (the public square or open meeting place); open to all male citizens as soon as they qualified for citizenship, regardless of class; responsible for declaring war, military strategy electing the strategoi (generals) & the magistrates(administrators and executors of the law); it had a final vote on legislation & the right to call magistrates to account; usual attendance was 6000 (of a total population of 30,000 citizens); met once a month & later 4 times per month, agenda established by the popular council;. votes taken by a show of hands, stones or broken pottery. Spengler refers to this phase as “the pure Polis (absolutism of the demos)” meaning the people held all power (executive, legislative & judicial).