[eno2]

Oorspronkelijk geplaatst door Paul Nollen

Het principe van een geloot panel is juist dat het een weerspiegeling is van de samenleving. Het zijn dus (statistisch) onze gelijken die gaan beslissen. Noodzakelijke bekwaamheden zijn er niet, enkel 'rede'. De beslissingen moeten dus letterlijk 'redelijk' zijn. De oude Atheners hadden verkiezingen voor die plaatsen die een uitzonderlijke bekwaamheid vereisten, zoals de aanvoerders van het leger. Voor de rest ben ik geen specialist in de democratie van het oude Athene, daar zijn uitgebreide werken over te vinden. Om bv over al dan niet kernenergie te beslissen moet ge geen technische bekwaamheid hebben maar redelijkheid.

'the assembly of the people:

 e Assembly (ἐκκλησία) was the regular gathering of
male Athenian citizens (women also enjoyed the status of
“citizen,” but without political rights) to listen to, discuss,
and vote on decrees that aff ected every aspect of Athenian
life, both public and private, from fi nancial matters to religious
ones, from public festivals to war, from treaties with
foreign powers to regulations governing ferry boats.

Of course, some people might be better qualifi ed than
others to speak on certain subjects, and the citizens of
Athens could be very critical when anyone tried to speak
outside of his expertise.  e character Socrates in Plato’s
Protagoras says that when the Athenian Assembly discusses
construction, the citizens call for builders to speak, and
when it discusses the construction of ships they call for
shipwrights, “but if anyone else, whom the people do not
regard as a cra sman, attempts to advise them, no matter
how handsome and wealthy and well-born he may be,
not one of these things induces them to accept him; they
merely laugh him to scorn and shout him down, until either
the speaker retires from his attempt, overborne by the
clamor, or the archers (τοξόται) pull him from his place
or turn him out altogether by order of the presiding offi
cials (κελευόντων τῶν πρυτάνεων)” (Plat. Prot. b–c).
But, Socrates continues, when the discussion is not about
technical matters but about the governing of the city, “the
man who rises to advise them on this may equally well be a
smith, a shoemaker, a merchant, a sea-captain, a rich man,
a poor man, of good family or of none” (Plat. Prot. d).

http://www.stoa.org/projects/demos/assembly.pdf