SA 100W Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Imperial Presidency, International Monetary Fund, Well-Founded Relation

• School: Simon Fraser University
• Department: Sociology and Anthropology
• Course: SA 100W
• Professor: John Bogardus

Document Summary

This campaign to subvert the egalitarianism at the core of the notion of democracy rule by the people (naiman, 2012: 169) is nothing new. It has persisted since the origin of the term in the city states of ancient greece. Athens during the so-called golden age was such that rule by the people meant rule by the poor, who are in the majority. It is for this reason that the concept of democracy is rejected from the outset by plato and aristotle and other members of the property- owning elite (blakeley, 2005, p. 192). Despite its reputation as the birth place of democracy, athens in the sixth century bce routinely denied voting rights to women, slaves, and the foreign born. Yet in many respects, the mass assemblies with their direct involvement in policy making meant the ordinary citizen in athens came closer to living the reality of self-governing people than is the case in contemporary canada.