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| Agora Museum in Athens |
I got the idea after a visit to the rather beautiful
Athens Agora Museum, where, as well as coming face to face with a real life
kleroterian as they used for sortitions, I came across some ostraca (ostracons?). Now these wonderful little broken pieces of
clay or shell where used for the process of ostracising (expelling) unwanted
politicians.
Ostracism in Classical Athens
The Wikipedia page about ostracism, which is well worth read, explains it like this:
Each year the Athenians were asked in the assembly whether they wished to hold an ostracism... If they voted "yes", then an ostracism would be held two months later. In a section of the agora set off and suitably barriered, citizens scratched the name of a citizen they wished to expel on pottery shards, and deposited them in urns. The presiding officials counted the ostraka submitted and sorted the names into separate piles. The person whose pile contained the most ostraka would be banished...Banishment would be for 10 years although, as property rights were essentially unaffected this constituted a political suspension rather than any more significant – you could get the death penalty for political crimes back then. Once the term was up the victim could resume their place in the political order as before – in special circumstances people could even be brought back early.
The benefit of ostracism for the Athenians was that it provided a countermeasure against tyranny and could also help decide issues of policy where particular positions were strongly associated with individuals. With the rise of organised factions, however, its use declined.
| Ostraca in the Agora Museum in Athens |
Ostracic Voting in Local Democracy Today
Thinking about this I wonder if there are at least
four ways ostracic voting might be used in local democracy:
1. Committee Meetings
Committees could be given the option to decide
whether to have an
vote and the ability to expel a member of the committee for any period of time.
This might improve the performance of the committee and keep individual members
on their toes. It would not affect political
balance as a replacement would come from the same party. However, party motives
may come to the fore and with a small group, the secret nature of the voting
might not be sufficient protection against these motives dominating. On the other hand, where the committee members
are genuinely concerned about the effectiveness of the group it gives them the
ability to remove unproductive, disruptive or uninterested individuals.
2. Council
Meetings
Council meetings could
be given not so much the power to recall, as the power to eject.
Council as a body would have the option
to remove any unproductive, disruptive or uninterested individuals and force a
by election in their wards. Again, this
procedure could be subject to group politics but, with a secret vote, that
would be more difficult to arrange.
3. Recall
Elections
The procedure of recall elections gives voters the
chance to remove unwanted representatives. Ostracic voting provides a different
way to organise this. Every year voters would have the chance to nominate a
councillor they would like to see ostracised (this could be done on a ward or
council wide basis), the councillor with the most votes, perhaps with a minimum
threshold would be ostracised, and a by election held.
4. Local
Elections
Finally, ostracic voting might be applied to the
local election procedure itself. Voters could rank candidates, not in their
order of preference, but in their order of disapproval. Selection could take
place on the simple basis of the candidate least disliked being elected or
after a series or rounds similar to the alternative vote or single transferable
vote.
All of this might sounds weird but perhaps it is
not as weird as all that as this method is already popular. Just look at any number of reality TV shows such as Big Brother
to see ostracic voting in action.
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