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Single Idea 19966

[from 'The Spirit of the Laws (rev. 1757)' by Baron de Montesquieu, in 24. Political Theory / D. Ideologies / 5. Democracy / c. Direct democracy ]

Full Idea

It is essential to fix the number of citizens who can participate in assemblies. Otherwise it would be uncertain whether all the people had spoken, or only a part of it. At Sparta the number was fixed at ten thousand.

Gist of Idea

A democratic assembly must have a fixed number, to see whether everyone has spoken

Source

Baron de Montesquieu (The Spirit of the Laws (rev. 1757) [1748], 02.02)

Book Reference

Montesquieu,Baron de: 'Selected Political Writings', ed/tr. Richter,Melvin [Hackett 1990], p.116


A Reaction

This looks like an immediate injustice to the citizen who came 10,001 in the rankings. 10,000 is just a smallish football crowd, so we could manage it today. We could pick the 10,000 by sortition (by lot). Most people are fairly sensible!