亚里士多德笔下的“极端民主制”初探

A preliminary study on radical democracy in Aristotle's writings

迄今为止,学术界对与希腊“极端民主制”尚缺乏系统的研究,从亚里士多德的有关记载、论述等史料中所反映的雅典的情况来看,极端民主制实际上是在缺乏有效制约机制的情况下,由以中下层平民为主的群众决定城邦一切重大事务的制度。它是所谓的“多数人”的权力不断膨胀,以至最终凌驾于法律之上的产物。其时雅典民主所面临的困境也正是根源于此。

Up to now, the academic circle has not made a systematic study of Greek radical democracy. As viewed from the historical materials left behind by Aristotle, radical democracy, in reality, was a system according to which the important decisions of the city-state were made by the masses mainly composed of by the populace of middle and lower strata without an effective restrictive mechanism. It was the product of the constant expansion of the power of so-called majority and finally placing itself above the law. The predicament of Athens resulted just from it.