Conformity and the sovereign majority: the social identity of the demos as a mechanism of order and conflict resolution in Classical Athens

Adamidis, V ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6347-5327, 2025. Conformity and the sovereign majority: the social identity of the demos as a mechanism of order and conflict resolution in Classical Athens. Mediares, 2025 (2), pp. 3-25. ISSN 1723-3437

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Abstract

This paper argues that Classical Athenian democracy maintained social order and resolved conflict not exclusively through impartial legal reasoning but through the conformity-imposing power of the majority. By reference to Social Identity Theory and Kenneth Burke’s concept of identification, it demonstrates that the Athenian demos operated as a psychologically unified in-group whose norms and beliefs directed law, politics, and rhetoric. Judicial and political institutions functioned as arenas for reaffirming this collective identity: litigants and politicians succeeded when they performed rhetorical consubstantiality with the demos and marginalised adversaries as ethical outsiders. Mechanisms such as thorubos, dokimasia, and majority voting visibly enacted the will of the putatively homogeneous citizen body, transforming debate and conflict into renewed consensus. The paper concludes that the Athenian polis preserved democracy through ideological uniformity and the conformity-imposing power of the sovereign majority.

Item Type:	Journal article
Publication Title:	Mediares
Creators:	Adamidis, V.
Publisher:	Primiceri Editore
Date:	December 2025
Volume:	2025
Number:	2
ISSN:	1723-3437
Identifiers:	Number Type 2551942 Other
Divisions:	Schools > Nottingham Law School
Record created by:	Melissa Cornwell
Date Added:	27 Jan 2026 10:24
Last Modified:	27 Jan 2026 10:24
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/55132

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