Men gathered in the assembly: collective decision-making in the ancient world

Abstract

This paper suggests that the emergence of hierarchies based on social inequality, does not necessarily imply the elimination of concept and practice of community. Even although the centralized power is a characteristic of complex systems, this did not mean that collective forms of decision-making were absent. The primary manifestations of these collective practices were the assemblies, as space that symbolizes the communal based power as a means of arriving at consensus for the common good. It is argued here that assemblies in the ancient world as well as those in later historical context represent the power of the people in spite of the manipulation and restriction imposed by hierarchical authority.