User talk:Gostislav/Boule (ancient Greece)

Boule (Greek: βουλή, boulē; plural βουλαί, boulai) was a council of elected citizens (βουλευταί, bouleutai) appointed to run daily affairs of the city. Originally a council of nobles advising a king, boulai evolved according to the constitution of the city: In oligarchies boule positions might have been hereditary, while in democracies members were typically chosen by lot (→ Sortition), and served for one year. Little is known about the workings of many boulai, except in the case of Athens, for which extensive material has survived.

Election
Not all citizens were in the selection pool when selecting members by lot from each deme. Only eligible citizens, male citizens age 30 or above and with no criminal charges, who had put themselves forward would be available for selection.

Organization
The Boule after Cleistenes was constituted by 500 citizens. In Athens the members are elected from members of individual demes (villages, towns, urban neighborhoods) that are part of one of the 10 tribes. Each tribe consisted of 50 members who were to sit in the the council. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Gostislav (talk • contribs) 22:57, 27 March 2021 (UTC)

Self Governance in the boule
Recent scholarship on participatory and direct democracy reexamines the boule for its ability to self govern (Landemore 2020; Ober 2008; Hansen 1991).

Cleisthenes' boule
Following the Athenian Revolution in 508 B.C. Cleisthenes formed a new government of Athens through a series of reforms. In strengthening the common Athenian identity Cleisthenes devised an artificial political division of Athens into ten tribes. The tribes would each include local demes from three different geographical types; the city trittys, the coastal trittys and inland trittys

Under the reforms of Cleisthenes enacted in 508/507 BC, the boule was expanded to 500 men, made up of 50 men from each of the ten new tribes also created by Cleisthenes. The 500 men were chosen by lot at the deme level, each deme having been allotted a certain number of places proportional to population. Membership was restricted at this time to the top three of the original four property classes (the Pentacosiomedimni, Hippeis and Zeugitae, but not the Thetes) and to citizens over the age of thirty. The former restriction, though never officially changed, fell out of practice by the middle of the 5th century BC. Members of the boule served for one year and no man could serve more than twice in his life, nor more than once a decade. The leaders of the boule (the prytany) consisted of 50 men chosen from among the 500, and a new 'prytany' was chosen every month. The man in charge of prytany was replaced every day from among the 50 members. The boule met every day except for festival days and ill-omened days. According to Aristotle, Cleisthenes introduced the Bouleutic Oath.