Social Structures
Author: Matthew McKenna, PhD Researcher at Maynooth University’s Assisting Living and Learning (ALL) Institute, Research Funded through the Science Foundation of Ireland (SFI) Centre for Research Training in Advanced Networks for Sustainable Societies (ADVANCE CRT)
The Council of Europe (2020) recalls that the word ‘Democracy’ ‘comes from the Greek words “demos“, meaning people, and “kratos“, meaning power; so democracy can be thought of as “power of the people”: a way of governing which depends upon the will of the people’.
Theories and models of democracy and ‘popular governance’ have manifested in innumerate social models and national socio-political dispositions of rule over millennia since the beginnings of ‘Athenian Democracy’ in the 5th Century BCE. The Greek Directorate of International Relations and European Union of the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports (2020) provides the following synopsis of the origins of democratic rule that is cherished as part of the underpinning ethos of the favoured model of governance by the modern political establishment within the context of the socio-political order of the European Union (EU) of today: ‘Humans as autonomous entities in the context of organized society, the respect for their personality, freedoms and rights, were fundamental topics in the ancient Greek thought. From the Elegies of Solon (c. 630-560 BC) to the Democracy and Laws of Plato (428/7-348/7), the Politics of Aristotle (384-323/2 BC) and Demosthenes’ fiery speeches (384-323 / 2 BC), the ideas of justice, rule of law, decency, education, virtue and free thought stand out as key ingredients for the ideal regime’.
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