Athenian

Fishkin draws on the deliberative aspects of Madison’s design, along with the Athenian model of democracy — which involved multiple deliberative bodies fulfilling different functions — as inspirational guideposts.

Athenian citizens would gather at an open-air theater as a democratic privilege and responsibility.

Athenian tragedy frequently placed recognizable civic dilemmas in a mythic framework, prompting the audience to examine questions of justice, governance and communal values.

Some scholars also think the head might have been fabricated in Greece, given the close relationship between the two regions — an Athenian commission brought to Thrace to mark a neighboring king’s grave.

Similar assemblies were at the core of Athenian democracy more than 2,000 years ago, and they’ve been revived recently across the world, mostly in Europe.