Isonomia
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Isonomia (ἰσονομία "equality in front of the law"[1][2]) from the Greek ἴσος isos, "equal," and νόμος nomos, "usage, custom, law"[1] is said to be the historical and philosophical foundation of liberty, justice, and democracy.

It was used by Greek writers such as Herodotus[3] and Cleisthenescitation needed interchangeably with democracy and is said to have been first ordained by the ancient Athenian lawgiver Soloncitation needed (c. 638BC-558BC). It was subsequently eclipsed until brought back into English as isonomy ("equality of law").

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Athenian equality

Although Herodotus uses the word δημοκρατια (democracy) it is to isonomia (equality) that he refers when he sets his three tests for the system of government which we now know as democracy:

The rule of the people has the fairest name of all, equality (isonomia), and does none of the things that a monarch does. The lot determines offices, power is held accountable, and deliberation is conducted in public. (Herodotus quoting Otanes c492BC[3]

We can see from this quote three tests for isonomia/democracy:

  1. It requires offices to be selected by lot.
  2. Magistrates must account for their actions. (At the end of their allotment Athenian officials were required to account for their actions in office before the people)
  3. Ordinary citizens conducted discussions in the public assembly.

And equality is at the heart of their view of democracy because the Greeks considered selection by lot to be more democratic than election [2] as oligarchs might buy elections whilst allotment guaranteed absolute fairness. Aristotle agrees that democracy and isonomia are linked: "Democracy arose from the idea that those who are equal in any respect are equal absolutely. All are alike free, therefore they claim that all are free absolutely... The next is when the democrats, on the grounds that they are all equal, claim equal participation in everything." [4].Aristotle considered isonomia to be the essential ingredient of a civilization seeking to promote individual and societal happiness.

Although often translated as "equality of law", according to the author Mogens Herman Hansen, isonomia and "equality of law" were different concepts[2]. Along with isonomia, the Athenians used several terms for equality[2] all compounds beginning with iso-: isegoria[5] (equal right to address the political assemblies), isopsephos polis[6] (one man one vote) and isokratia[7] (equality of power). The Athenian concept of equality never spread to the social and economic spheres such as equal distribution of land or cancellation of debts which were subjects of debate in other city states.

Later use

According to Hayek, isonomia was championed by the Roman Cicero[8] and "rediscovered" in the eleventh century AD by the law students of Bologna who he says are credited with founding much of the Western Legal Tradition.

Isonomy

"Isonomia" was imported into England at the end of the sixteenth century as a word meaning "equality of laws to all manner of persons"[8]. Soon after, it was used by the translator of Livy in the form "Isonomy"[8] (although not a direct translation of isonomia) to describe a state of equal laws for all and responsibility of the magistrates. During the seventeenth century it was gradually replaced by the phrases: "equality before the law", "rule of law" & "government of law"[8].

Political theorist Hannah Arendt argued that isonomy was equated with political freedom at least from the time of Herodotus. The word essentially denoted a state of no-rule, in which there was no distinction between rulers and ruled. It was "the equality of those who form a body of peers." Isonomy was unique among the forms of government in the ancient lexicon in that it lacked the suffixes "-archy" and "-cracy" which denote a notion of rule in words like "monarchy" and "democracy." Arendt goes on to argue that the Greek polis was therefore conceived not as a democracy but as an isonomy. "Democracy" was the term used by opponents of isonomy who claimed that "what you say is 'no-rule' is in fact only another kind of rulership...rule by the demos," or majority.[9]

The public administration theorist, Alberto Guerreiro Ramos, reserved for isonomy a central role in his model of human organization. He was particularly concerned with distinguishing the space of the isonomy from that of the economy. Following Hannah Arendt, Guerreiro Ramos argued that individuals should have the opportunity to engage with others in settings that are unaffected by economizing considerations. The isonomy constitutes such a setting; its function is to "enhance the good life of the whole."[10]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon
  2. ^ a b c d The Athenian Democracy in the Age of Demosthenes", Mogens Herman Hansen, ISBN 1-85399-585-1, P.81-84
  3. ^ a b Herodotus 3.80
  4. ^ Aristotle Politics 1301a28-35
  5. ^ Demosthenes 15.18
  6. ^ Euripides, The Suppliant Woman, 353. Ste Croix (1981) 285
  7. ^ Herodotus 5.92
  8. ^ a b c d Friedrich A. Hayek, Origins of the Rule of Law [1]
  9. ^ Hannah Arendt, On Revolution (London: Penguin Books, 1963), p30
  10. ^ Guerreiro Ramos, A. (1981). The new science of organizations: A reconceptualization of the wealth of nations. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. p. 131.

Further reading

External links
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