1.5M views · Dec 15, 2017 · 19:20 · 3 HN recommenders · 3 mentions · discussed 2018–2026
Historia Civilis explains the constitution of ancient Athens, including its assembly, offices and use of sortition to choose leaders. It draws on Aristotle and Plutarch.
Why Hacker News points people here: Recommended in governance threads for showing how randomness and short terms prevented power concentration.
“This is a good video on this”HN comment, 2026
“Historia civilis has a great video on the constitution of ancient Athens.”
Explains the constitution of ancient Athens.
In ancient Athens only adult male Athenian citizens who had completed their military duties were able to vote, roughly 20% of the population. This seems pretty oligarchic today but it was a massive improvement in the council of elders that used to rule before that. Historia civilis has a great video on the constitution of ancient Athens. this video
“You should watch the whole thing (it's pretty interesting)”
Covers Athenian leader selection by lot, with sortition at 8m00s.
The ancient Athenians used something similar to select their leaders: link EDIT: I remember this from a Historia Civilis video: this video You should watch the whole thing (it's pretty interesting) but skip to 8m00s to watch the part about sortition.
“This is a good video on this”
Explains randomness and short terms in Athenian democracy preventing power concentration.
Perhaps you're joking, but Athenian democracy had a significant amount of randomness, with candidates being chosen randomly from the top vote winners. Terms were also only 1 year for most positions. These, and other systems, helped prevent any one person from monopolizing power. This is a good video on this: this video
