Civil society
This topic explains what civil society means, how does it work and how we can valorise it
Greek polis
Ostracism was a procedure under the Athenian democracy in which any citizen could be expelled from the city-state of Athens for ten years. It was used as a way of neutralizing someone thought to be a threat to the state or potential tyrant. Ostracism therefore had no relation to the processes of justice. There was no charge or defense, and the exile was not in fact a penalty; it was simply a command from the Athenian people that one of their members should be gone for ten years. Ostracism was crucially different from Athenian law at the time; there was no charge, and no defence could be mounted by the person expelled. The two stages of the procedure ran in the reverse order from that used under almost any trial system.