They didn’t elect people to positions, because they thought that would lead to popularity contests doninated by the wealthy (🤔).
We should note that the body of eligible (adult male) citizens was far from representative. If 20% of the population were slaves or other non-citizens (leaving 80% citizens), half were women (leaving 40%) and 25% were children (leaving 30%), 70% of the population were unrepresented.
And that’s for the more democratic cities like Athens; oligarchic ones might well implement wealth requirements for full citizenship and some like Sparta were particularly draconic with limting membership (to the point of self-destruction when their citizen body dwindled and they refused to admit new Spartiates).
(Also, Generals actually were elected, but that makes sense since you probably don’t want to randomly allot some guy that might or might not have the skills to coordinate army movement and activities, or might not even be wealthy enough to serve as hoplite themselves because armour is expensive.)
We should note that the body of eligible (adult male) citizens was far from representative. If 20% of the population were slaves or other non-citizens (leaving 80% citizens), half were women (leaving 40%) and 25% were children (leaving 30%), 70% of the population were unrepresented.
And that’s for the more democratic cities like Athens; oligarchic ones might well implement wealth requirements for full citizenship and some like Sparta were particularly draconic with limting membership (to the point of self-destruction when their citizen body dwindled and they refused to admit new Spartiates).
(Also, Generals actually were elected, but that makes sense since you probably don’t want to randomly allot some guy that might or might not have the skills to coordinate army movement and activities, or might not even be wealthy enough to serve as hoplite themselves because armour is expensive.)