CLASSICS HANDBOOK ENTRY
Ancient Greek Democracy
Aims and Objectives
�To explore the meanings of 'Democracy' both Ancient (mainly Greek) and Modern
(incl. current)
�To enhance understanding of the special circumstances required to make possible both
the emergence and the continuation of People Power at Athens
�To compare and contrast the democracy (democracies) that were created in Athens with
those to be found elsewhere in the Greek world, a world of (at mostperiods) 1000 or so
poleis (citizen states)
�To appreciate the development of ancient political thinking and theory about
democracy, and not least comprehend its typically anti-democratic bent
�To track the devolution or degradation of the original Greek conception(s) and practices
of democracy through the Hellenistic Greek world, late Republican and early Imperial
Rome, and down as far as early Byzantium (6th c. CE)
�To follow some of the trajectory of post-Ancient democracy, in the European Middle
Ages, in Revolutionary England, America and France, and in its reconstituted or reinvented forms of the 19th century and beyond
All histor(iograph)y may be contemporary history, but the historiography of democracy
could hardly be more so. Current global preoccupation with 'democracy' makes constant
re-examination of the - ancient Greek - original(s) imperative.This new Course will thus
be explicitly and determinedly comparativist from the outset, and one early pedagogical
aim will be to problematize and defamiliarize Modern 'democracy' and sever any easy
assimilation of it to Ancient.
We shall not only be comparing/contrasting Ancient with Modern, though, but also - and
at first equally or more - Ancient with Ancient, and indeed Ancient Democracy with
Ancient Greek Oligarchy (which could sometimes be represented as really quite
'democratic'). Aristotle (384-322 BCE) will be our guide in this as in so much else where
ancient politics are concerned. In his Politics he claimed to be able to distinguish four
species of the genus dêmokratia. We shall follow in the same line of thought by
comparing Athenian democracy, Aristotle's 'last' or 'ultimate' species - itself a moving
target, with quite distinct evolutionary stages and revolutionary moments - with other (of
course, far less well documented) democracies, such as those of Mantineia and Elis in the
5th century, or Thebes in the 4th.
Ancient Greek, esp. Athenian, Democracy (to 322/1 BCE) will be the main topic of the
Course. But the last third or so will address its legacies. We shall continue the story into
the Hellenistic period, where at least the island-city of Rhodes kept some sort of
democratic flag flying in the face of first Hellenistic Greek, then Roman assault.
(Republican) Rome, I shall argue, has no true place in a history of Ancient democracy
properly so called, as anciently understood by the Greeks. This will be confirmed by
considering the devaluation of the term 'dêmokratia' by Cicero, Aelius Aristeides and
others in the 'central' Roman era, and (well) beyond that into the 6th-century Byzantine
world of Justinian.
More briefly, we shall then look at some more or less vague foreshadowings or inklings
of Modern Democracy in the European middle ages, the 17th-century English
'Revolution' (Putney/Leveller Debates), and more especially at the claims to Antique
Greek 'democratic' legitimacy put forward by the American and more especially some of
the French Revolutionaries of the later 18th century; then, finally, at the resumption,
really re-invention, of 'Democracy' (so-called) in the 19th century. Until then the
dominant tradition of Western political thought both in and since Antiquity had been
*anti*-democratic, more specifically anti-the more radical species of Democracy
theorized by Aristotle in the Politics. That long tradition has been and is being
undermined, though it is as yet far from being overthrown, by various shapes and forms
of Direct Democracy advocates, including those who point to the - technical - capacity of
new information technology to realise the Global Democratic Village.
BASIC READING
i. Ancient Sources
Aristotle Constitution of the Athenians (trans. Peter Rhodes, Penguin
Classics)
Aristotle Politics (trans. T.A. Sinclair, Penguin Classics)
ii. Ancient and/or Modern
Cartledge, P.A. 1998, rev. pb 2002 (ed.)The Cambridge Illustrated
History of Ancient Greece. Cambridge
Osborne, R. 2008 (ed.)The World of Athens, 2nd edn. Cambridge
Rhodes, P.J. 2003. Ancient Democracy and Modern Ideology.
London.
Rhodes, P.J. 2004 (ed.) Athenian Democracy. Edinburgh [reader]
Roberts, J.T. 1994. Athens on Trial. The Anti-Democratic Tradition
in Western Thought. Princeton.
Robinson, E.W. 2004. (ed.) Ancient Greek Democracy. Readings and
Sources. Cambridge, MA, & Oxford.
Rodewald, C.A. Democracy: Ideas and Realities. Toronto & London
[sourcebook]
Samons, Loren J., II 1998. (ed.) Athenian Democracy and
Imperialism. Boston [sources and modern work]
iii. Further Reading
Anderson, G. 2003. The Athenian Experiment: Building an imagined
political community in ancient Attica, 508-490 B.C. Ann Arbor
[rev. PC, Class. Philology 99 (2004) 377-81]
Badiou, A. 2005 (E.T. 2007). The Century. Cambridge
Balot, R. 2006. Greek Political Thought. Oxford (Blackwell)
Berent, M. 1994. 'The Stateless Polis. Towards a Re-Evaluation of
the Classical Greek Political Community' (Unpublished
Cambridge PhD dissertation).
Berent, M. 1996. 'Hobbes and the "Greek Tongues"' History of
Political Thought 17: 36-59.
Boedeker, D. & K. Raaflaub eds 1998. Democracy, Empire & the Arts
in Fifth-century Athens. Washington, DC
Bordes, J. 1982. Politeia dans la pensée grecque jusqu'à Aristote.
Paris.
Boudon, R. 2007 Renouveler la démocratie. Eloge du sens commun.
Paris
Brett, A. 2003. 'The development of the idea of citizens' rights' in
Q. Skinner & B. Stråth eds. States & Citizens, 97-112
Briscoe, J. 1967/1974. 'Rome and the class struggle in the Greek
states 200-146 BC' (Past & Present 1967), repr. in M. Finley ed.
Studies in Ancient Society (London & Boston 1974) ch. 3
Brock, R. 1991. 'The emergence of democratic ideology' Historia
40: 160-9
Brunschwig, J. & G. Lloyd 2000. eds Greek Knowledge. Cambridge,
MA
Bultrighini, U. 2006 ed. Democrazia e Antidemocrazia nel mondo
greco. Alessandria
Camassa, G. 2000 'Cronaca degli anni fecondi: Clistene, il
Demos e le Eterie' Quaderni di Storia 51: 41-56
Camassa, G. 2007 Atene. La Costruzione della democrazia. Rome
Camp, J.M. 1986. The Athenian Agora. Excavations in the heart of
Classical Athens (London & NY, corr. pb. repr.)
Carlier, P. 1998. 'Observations sur la décision politique en Grèce,
de l'époque mycénienne à l'époque archaïque' in Schuller ed.:
1-18.
Cartledge, P.A. 1987. Agesilaus and the Crisis of Sparta. London &
Baltimore [repr. 2000].
Cartledge, P.A. 1996. 'Comparatively Equal: A Spartan approach' in
Ober and Hedrick, eds.: 175-85. Princeton. Updated repr. in
Cartledge 2001: ch. 6.
Cartledge, P.A. 1997. '"Deep Plays": Theatre as Process in Greek civic
life' in Easterling ed.: 3-35.
Cartledge, P.A. 1998. 'Writing the history of Archaic Greek political
thought' in N. Fisher & H. van Wees (eds.) Archaic Greece: New
Approaches and New Evidence, 379-99. London.
Cartledge, P.A. 1999. Aristophanes and his Theatre of the Absurd
new edn with index and updated bibliography. Bristol
Cartledge, P.A. 2000a. 'Democratic politics ancient and modern:
from Cleisthenes to Mary Robinson' Hermathena 166: 5-29.
Cartledge, P.A. 2000b. 'The Historical Context'. Inaugural chapter
of The Cambridge History of Ancient Political Thought, ed.
C. Rowe & M. Schofield (Cambridge) 11-22.
Cartledge, P.A. 2001. Spartan Reflections. London & California.
Cartledge, P.A. 2001a. 'The peculiar position of Sparta in the
development of the Greek city-state' in Cartledge 2001: ch. 3.
Cartledge, P.A. 2001b. The Greeks: Crucible of Civilization. BBC
Books, London
Cartledge, P.A. 2001c 'Socrates on Trial' BBC History Magazine,
January , pp. 34-5
Cartledge, P.A. 2002. The Greeks. A Portrait of Self and Others,
2nd edn. Oxford.
Cartledge, P. 2008. Demokratie - Eine Trilogie. Stuttgart
Cartledge, P., P. Millett & S. Todd eds. 1990, repr. 2002. NOMOS.
Essays in Law, Politics and Society in Classical Athens. Cambridge
Cartledge, P., P. Millett & S. von Reden eds 1998, repr. 2002.
KOSMOS. Essays in Athenian Order, Conflict and Community.
Cambridge
Crick, Bernard. 2002. Democracy. A Very Short Introduction.
Oxford.
Davies, J.K. 2003. 'Democracy without theory' in P. Derow and R.
Parker eds. Herodotus and his World. Oxford: 319-35
Dunn, J. 1993. Western Political Theory in the Face of the Future
2nd edn. Cambridge.
Dunn, J. 2005 Setting the People Free. The story of democracy.
London
Dunn, J. 1992. ed. Democracy. The unfinished journey 508 BC to
AD 1993 (Oxford)
Dunn, J. 2007. 'Capitalist democracy: elective affinity or beguiling
illusion?' Daedalus, Summer: 5-13
Easterling, P.E. 1997. ed. The Cambridge Companion to Greek
Tragedy. Cambridge.
Eder, W. 1991. 'Who Rules? Power and participation in Athens
and Rome' in Molho, Raaflaub & Emlen, edd. 1991: 169-98.
Eder, W. 1998. 'Aristocrats and the coming of Athenian democracy'.
In Morris and Raaflaub 1998: 105-40.
Farrar, C. 1988. The Origins of Democratic Thinking. The
Invention of Politics in Classical Athens. Cambridge.
Finley, M.I. 1983. Politics in the Ancient World. Cambridge.
Finley, M.I. 1985. Democracy Ancient & Modern, 2nd edn.
London [incl. 'Athenian demagogues', also in Rhodes ed.].
Fornara, C. & L. Samons II 1991. Athens from Cleisthenes to
Pericles. Calif. & Oxford
Forsdyke, S. 2002. 'Greek History, c. 525-480 BC' in E.J. Bakker, I.
de Jong, & H. van Wees (eds) Brill's Companion to Herodotus.
Leiden: 521-49, at 536-42
Freeman, C. 1999, pb 2001. The Greek Achievement: the Foundation
of the Western World. London
Gauchet, M. 2007. L'Avènement de la démocratie I. La Révolution
moderne. II. La crise du libéralisme. Paris
Goidard, P. & Pilon, P. 2006 eds. Les Démocraties. De l'Antiquité à
nos jours. Paris
Hansen, M.H. 1989a. Was Athens a democracy? Popular rule,
Liberty and Equality in Ancient and Modern Political Thought.
Copenhagen.
Hansen, M.H. 1989b. 'On the importance of institutions in an
analysis of Athenian democracy' in The Athenian Ecclesia II. A
Collection of Articles 1983-1989, 263-9. Copenhagen.
Hansen, M.H. 1990a. 'Solonian democracy in fourth-century
Athens' in J. Rufus Fears ed. Aspects of Athenian Democracy,
71-99. Copenhagen.
Hansen, M.H. 1990b. Review of Ober 1989, CR 40: 348-56
Hansen, M.H. 1993. ed. The Ancient Greek City-State.
Copenhagen.
Hansen, M.H. 1997. ed. The Polis as an Urban Centre and as a
Political Community. Copenhagen.
Hansen, M.H. 1999. The Athenian Democracy in the Age of
Demosthenes. New, augmented edn. Bristol.
Hansen, M.H. 2002. 'Was the Polis a State or a Stateless
Society?', in T.H. Nielsen ed. Even More Studies in the Ancient
Greek Polis (Copenhagen Polis Centre Papers 6 = Historia
Einzelschr. 162), 17-48. Copenhagen & Stuttgart.
Hansen, M.H. 2005. The Tradition of Ancient Greek Democracy and
its Importance for Modern Democracy. Copenhagen
Harris, E.M. 1995. Aeschines and Athenian Politics. Oxford
Harris, E.M. 2006. Democracy and the Rule of Law in Classical
Athens. Essays on law, society and politics. Cambridge
Harvey, F.D. 1990. 'The Sykophant and Sykophancy: vexatious
redefinition?' in Cartledge, Millett and Todd edd.: 103-21.
Held, D. 1996. Models of Democracy, 2nd edn. Cambridge
Hesk, J.P. 2000. Deception and Democracy in Classical Athens.
Cambridge.
Hopper, R.J. 1957. The Basis of the Athenian Democracy. Sheffield
Irwin, E. 2005. Solon and Early Greek Poetry. The Politics of
Exhortation. Cambridge
Jameson, M. 1997/2004. 'Women and democracy in fourth-century
Athens' (1997), repr. in Robinson ed. 2004: 281-92
Jones, A.H.M. 1957 pb 1978. Athenian Democracy. Oxford [incl.
'The Athenian democracy and its critics' ch. 3]
Kagan, D. 1991 Pericles of Athens and the Birth of Democracy. NY
Lipset, S.M. & Lakin, J.M. 2004. The Democratic Century. Norman,
OK
Loraux, N. 1987. 'Le lien de la division' Le Cahier du Collège
International de Philosophie 4: 101-24, repr. as Loraux 1997:
ch. 4.
Loraux, N. 1991. 'Reflections of the Greek city on unity and
division' in Molho, Raaflaub & Emlen, edd. 1991: 33-51.
Loraux, N. 1993. The Children of Athena. Princeton
Loraux, N. 1997. La cité divisée. Paris. [Eng. trans. 2001]
Loraux, N. 2005 La tragédie d'Athènes. La politique entre l'ombre
et l'utopie. Paris [collected articles]
Manent, P. 2007. Tocqueville et la nature de la démocratie. Paris
Manin, B. 1997. The Principles of Representative Government.
Cambridge
Manville, B. and J. Ober (2003) A Company of Citizens. Princeton
Markle, MM III 1985/2004 'Jurypay and Assembly pay at Athens'
(1985), repr. in Rhodes ed. 2004: ch. 4
McGlew, J.F. 2003. Citizens on Stage: Comedy and Political Culture
in the Athenian Democracy. Ann Arbor.
Meier, C. 1980/1990. The Greek Discovery of Politics. Cambridge,
MA [abridgement of German original 1980].
Meier, C. 1982/2004 'The Greeks: the political revolution in
world history' in Rhodes ed.: ch. 14
Millar, F. 2002a The Roman Republic in Political Thought.
Hanover, NH, & London
Millar, F. 2002b 'Popular politics at Rome in the Late Republic'
(1995), repr. as ch. 6 of Rome, The Greek World & the East vol 1.
The Roman Republic & the Augustan Revolution. Chapel Hill.
Molho, H., Raaflaub, K.A., & Emlen, J. 1991. edd. Athens and
Rome, Florence and Venice: City-States in Antiquity &
Medieval Italy. Stuttgart.
Morris, Ian and Kurt Raaflaub 1998. (eds.) Democracy 2500?
Questions and Challenges. Archaeological Institute of America,
Colloquium and Conference Papers 2. Dubuque, IA.
Mossé, Cl. 1979/2004 'How a political myth takes shape: Solon,
"Founding Father" of the Athenian democracy' in Rhodes ed.
ch. 10
Newton, K. & J.W. van Deth 2006 Foundations of Comparative
Politics: Democracies of the Modern World. Cambridge
Nippel, W. 1988. 'Bürgerideal und Oligarchie. "Klassischer
Republikanismus" aus althistorischer Sicht' in Koenigsberger,
ed. 1988: 1-18.
Nippel, W. 1993. 'Macht, Machtkontrolle und Machtentgrenzung.
Zu einigen Konzeptionen und ihrer Rezeption in der frühen
Neuzeit' in J. Gebhardt and H. Münkler, edd. Bürgerschaft und
Herrschaft. Zum Verhältnis von Macht und Demokratie im
antiken und neuzeitlichen politischen Denken, 58-78. BadenBaden.
Nippel, W. 1994. 'Ancient & modern republicanism' in B. Fontana,
ed. The Invention of the Modern Republic, 6-26. Cambridge.
Ober, J. 1989. Mass and Elite in Classical Athens. Rhetoric,
Ideology and the Power of the People (Princeton)
Ober, J. 1996. The Athenian Revolution. Essays on Ancient Greek
Democracy and Political Theory (Princeton), esp. ch. 4 ('The
Athenian Revolution of 508/7 B.C.: violence, authority, and the
origins of democracy', originally 1993) [repr. in Rhodes ed.]
Ober, J. 1998. Political Dissent in Democratic Athens. Intellectual
Critics of Popular Rule. Princeton.
Ober, J. and C. Hedrick. 1996. edd. Dêmokratia. A Conversation
on Democracies, Ancient and Modern. Princeton.
O'Neil, J.L. 1995. The Origins and Development of Ancient Greek
Democracy. Lanham, MD & London.
Osborne, R. 1993/2004. 'Competitive festivals and the polis: a
context for dramatic festivals at Athens' (1993) repr. in
Rhodes ed. 2004: ch. 8
Osborne, R. 2006. 'When was the Athenian democratic
revolution?' in S. Goldhill & R. Osborne eds. Rethinking
Revolutions through Ancient Greece, Cambridge, 10-28
Ostwald, M. 1986. From Popular Sovereignty to the Sovereignty
of the Law. Law, society and politics in fifth-century Athens.
California & London.
Ostwald, M. 1996/2004. 'Shares and rights: "citizenship" Greek style
and American style' in Ober & Hedrick edd.: 49-61, repr. in
Robinson ed. 2004.
Podlecki, A. 1998. Pericles and his Circle. London & NY
Pritchard, D. 2004. 'Kleisthenes, participation, and the dithyrambic
contests of late Archaic and Classical Athens' Phoenix 58: 208-28
Pritchard, D. 2005 'Kleisthenes and Athenian democracy - vision
from above or below?' POLIS 22: 136-57 [review-article of
Anderson]
Raaflaub, K.A. 1989. 'Die Anfänge des politischen Denkens bei
den Griechen' HZ 248: 1-32.
Raaflaub, K.A. (1992) Politisches Denken und Krise der Polis.
Athen im Verfassungskonflikt des späten 5. Jahrhunderts v.
Chr. (Munich)
Raaflaub, K.A. 1993. ed. Anfänge politischen Denkens in der
Antike. Munich.
Raaflaub, K.A. 1998 'Power in the hands of the People: foundations
of Athenian democracy' in I. Morris & K. Raaflaub (eds.)
Democracy 2500? Questions and Challenges. Dubuque: 31-66
Raaflaub, K.A., J. Ober & R. Wallace, with C. Farrar and P. Cartledge
2007. Origins of Democracy in Ancient Greece. Berkeley etc
Rancière, J. 1995, tr 2007 On the Shores of Politics. London
Rancière, J. 2005, tr 2006 Hatred of Democracy. London
Richard, C.J. 1994. the Founders and the Classics. Cambridge, MA
Ringen, S. 2007. What Democracy is for. On freedom and moral
government. Princeton
Rowe, C.J. and M. Schofield 2000 (eds.) The Cambridge History of
Greek and Roman Political Thought. Cambridge
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Ancient Greek World. London & Ithaca [corr. impr. 1983].
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Essays, ed. D. Harvey & R. Parker. Oxford [chs. 4-5]
Samons, L.J. II 1998 'Mass, elite, and hoplite-farmer in Greek
history' Arion 3rd ser. 5: 99-123 [excerpted in Robinson ed.]
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Athenian Practice to American Worship. California
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Darmstadt.
Sealey, R. 1987. Athenian Democracy: Republic or the Rule of
Law?. University Park, PA.
Sealey, R. 1993. Demosthenes. A Study in Defeat. NY
Sen, A. 2006. Identity & Violence. The Illusion of Destiny. N.Y.
Shapiro, H.A. 1989. Art and Cult under the Tyrants in Athens.
Mainz/Rhein
Sinclair, R.K. 1988. Democracy and Participation in Athens.
Cambridge
Skocpol, T. 2003. Diminished Democracy: From Membership to
Management in American Civic Life. Norman, OK.
Stoker, G. 2006. Why Politics Matters: Making Democracy Work.
Basingstoke
Stone, I.F. 1988 The Trial of Socrates. London
Vernant, J.-P. 1985. 'Espace et organisation politique en Grèce
ancienne'. In Mythe et pensée chez les Grecs, 3rd edn,
238-60. Paris.
Vlassopoulos, K. 2007 'Free spaces: identity, experience, and
democracy in Classical Athens' CQ 57: 33-52
Vlastos, G. 1953. 'Isonomia' AJP 74: 337-66.
Vlastos, G. 1964. 'Isonomia politike' in J. Mau and E.G. Schmidt,
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griechischen Denken, 1-35. Berlin (East)
Wood, E.M. 1995. 'The demos versus "we, the people": from ancient
to modern conceptions of citizenship' in her Democracy Against
Capitalism. Renewing historical materialism. Cambridge, 204-37.
Yunis, H. 1997. Taming Democracy: Models of Political Rhetoric in
Classical Athens Ithaca, NY.
Zakaria, F. 2004 The Future of Freedom. Illiberal Democracy at
Home and Abroad. NY
Paul Cartledge
Ancient Greek Democracy - and Its Legacies
[New ClassicalTripos Part II (C1) course, also Specified Subject for Historical Tripos
Part II, 2009/10-2013/14?]
Aims and Objectives
�To explore the meanings of 'Democracy' both Ancient (mainly Greek) and Modern
(incl. current)
�To enhance understanding of the special circumstances required to make possible both
the emergence and the continuation of People Power at Athens
�To compare and contrast the democracy (democracies) that were created in Athens with
those to be found elsewhere in the Greek world, a world of (at mostperiods) 1000 or so
poleis (citizen states)
�To appreciate the development of ancient political thinking and theory about
democracy, and not least comprehend its typically anti-democratic bent
�To track the devolution or degradation of the original Greek conception(s) and practices
of democracy through the Hellenistic Greek world, late Republican and early Imperial
Rome, and down as far as early Byzantium (6th c. CE)
�To follow some of the trajectory of post-Ancient democracy, in the European Middle
Ages, in Revolutionary England, America and France, and in its reconstituted or reinvented forms of the 19th century and beyond
Prospectus
All histor(iograph)y may be contemporary history, but the historiography of democracy
could hardly be more so. Current global preoccupation with 'democracy' makes constant
re-examination of the - ancient Greek - original(s) imperative.This new Course will thus
be explicitly and determinedly comparativist from the outset, and one early pedagogical
aim will be to problematize and defamiliarize Modern 'democracy' and sever any easy
assimilation of it to Ancient.
We shall not only be comparing/contrasting Ancient with Modern, though, but also - and
at first equally or more - Ancient with Ancient, and indeed Ancient Democracy with
Ancient Greek Oligarchy (which could sometimes be represented as really quite
'democratic'). Aristotle (384-322 BCE) will be our guide in this as in so much else where
ancient politics are concerned. In his Politics he claimed to be able to distinguish four
species of the genus dêmokratia. We shall follow in the same line of thought by
comparing Athenian democracy, Aristotle's 'last' or 'ultimate' species - itself a moving
target, with quite distinct evolutionary stages and revolutionary moments - with other (of
course, far less well documented) democracies, such as those of Mantineia and Elis in the
5th century, or Thebes in the 4th.
Ancient Greek, esp. Athenian, Democracy (to 322/1 BCE) will be the main topic of the
Course. But the last third or so will address its legacies. We shall continue the story into
the Hellenistic period, where at least the island-city of Rhodes kept some sort of
democratic flag flying in the face of first Hellenistic Greek, then Roman assault.
(Republican) Rome, I shall argue, has no true place in a history of Ancient democracy
properly so called, as anciently understood by the Greeks. This will be confirmed by
considering the devaluation of the term 'dêmokratia' by Cicero, Aelius Aristeides and
others in the 'central' Roman era, and (well) beyond that into the 6th-century Byzantine
world of Justinian.
More briefly, we shall then look at some more or less vague foreshadowings or inklings
of Modern Democracy in the European middle ages, the 17th-century English
'Revolution' (Putney/Leveller Debates), and more especially at the claims to Antique
Greek 'democratic' legitimacy put forward by the American and more especially some of
the French Revolutionaries of the later 18th century; then, finally, at the resumption,
really re-invention, of 'Democracy' (so-called) in the 19th century. Until then the
dominant tradition of Western political thought both in and since Antiquity had been
*anti*-democratic, more specifically anti-the more radical species of Democracy
theorized by Aristotle in the Politics. That long tradition has been and is being
undermined, though it is as yet far from being overthrown, by various shapes and forms
of Direct Democracy advocates, including those who point to the - technical - capacity of
new information technology to realise the Global Democratic Village.
Lectures (provisional)
1 Introduction: Lost in Translation? Modern and Contemporary Appropriations of
Democracy I
2 Modern and Contemporary Appropriations of Democracy II: Grote, Mill, Finley,
Hansen & Ober
3 The Emergence of the Polis/Politics/the Political: Homer, Hesiod, Theognis
4 The Emergence of Democracy I: Archaic Greece (Crete, Chios) & Solon of Athens
5 The Emergence of Democracy II: Cleisthenes
6 The Emergence of Democracy III: Ephialtes, Pericles, Syracuse
7 Athenian Democracy pre-403 BCE I: Theory
8 Athenian Democracy pre-403 BCE II: Practice
9 Athenian Democracy pre-403 BCE III: Culture
10 Democracy in Crisis: Corcyra 427, Athens 411, 404-3
11 Democracy on Trial: Trial of Socrates 399
12 Half-time Retrospect: Class Discussion
13 The Golden Age of Greek Democracy (c.375-50): Thebes, Mantineia etc
14 How did the 4th-c. Athenian Democracy Work in the Age of Lycurgus? I: Macrocosm
(Council, Assembly, Lawcourts)
15 How did the 4th-c. Athenian Democracy Work in the Age of Lycurgus? II:
Microcosm (the Deme)
16 Retrospect on Classical Greek esp. Athenian Democracy
17 Hellenistic Democracy I: General, esp. Athens II: Rhodes
18 Roman Republic I: Polybius's Roman Constitution
19 Roman Republic II: the 'Millar Thesis' of Roman 'Democracy'
20 Roman Empire: Aelius Aristeides and the Principate
21 Democracy Denied I: Late Antiquity & European Middle Ages
22 Democracy Denied II: England (17th c.), America & France (18th)
23 Democracy Reinvented: 19th c. Britain & Tocqueville's America
24 Retrospect & Prospect
Core Bibliography
i. Primary Sources: Workings of Democracy
Aristotle Constitution of the Athenians (trans. Peter Rhodes, Penguin
Classics)
Aristotle Politics (trans. T.A. Sinclair, Penguin Classics)
Aristophanes, esp. Knights (424 BC) and Wasps (422), ed. & trans.
Alan Sommerstein (Aris & Phillips)
ii. Primary sources: Thought about Democracy
a. Pro-Democracy - Thucydides 2.34-46 (the Periclean Funeral Oration), Herodotus 3.80
(Persian Debate), Protagoras, Democritus
b. Anti-Democracy - Thucydides 2.65, 8.97.2; The 'Old Oligarch', in J.M. Moore,
Aristotle and Xenophon on Democracy and Oligarchy (1983, new edn R. Osborne,
LACTOR 2003); Xenophon, A History of My Times Book 1, chapter 7 (trs. R. Warner,
Penguin Classics); Xenophon, Conversations of Socrates (trs. R. Waterfield, Penguin
Classics); Xenophon: Hiero the Tyrant & Other Treatises (trs. R. Waterfield, notes and
intros P. Cartledge, rev. edn 2006, Penguin Classics) Plato, Republic (trs. R. Waterfield,
Oxford Worlds Classics)
iii. Modern work (provisional selection)
Cartledge, P.A. 1998, rev. pb 2002 (ed.)The Cambridge Illustrated
History of Ancient Greece. Cambridge
Osborne, R. 2008 (ed.)The World of Athens, 2nd edn. Cambridge
Rhodes, P.J. 2003. Ancient Democracy and Modern Ideology.
London.
Rhodes, P.J. 2004 (ed.) Athenian Democracy. Edinburgh [reader]
Roberts, J.T. 1994. Athens on Trial. The Anti-Democratic Tradition
in Western Thought. Princeton.
Robinson, E.W. 1997. The First Democracies. Early Popular
Government outside Athens. (Historia Einzelschr. 107). Stuttgart.
Robinson, E.W. 2004. (ed.) Ancient Greek Democracy. Readings and
Sources. Cambridge, MA, & Oxford.
Rodewald, C.A. Democracy: Ideas and Realities. Toronto & London
[sourcebook]
Samons, Loren J., II 1998. (ed.) Athenian Democracy and
Imperialism. Boston [sources and modern work]
Proposal to Classics & History Faculties
To propose a new Part II C1 lecture course on Democracy (mainly ancient but also some
modern) is a 'no-brainer', especially in a Cambridge context. Three of the last 5
Professors of Ancient History in Cambridge (Jones, Finley, Osborne) have made
exceptionally distinguished contributions to its study, as have colleagues in Philosophy
and SPS as well as the History Faculty. That does of course also make it harder to say
something both new and true ('true'). Here, current global preoccupation with 'democracy'
comes to the rescue, or at least into the frame. All histor(iograph)y may be contemporary
history, but the historiography of democracy could hardly be more so.
This course will thus be explicitly and determinedly comparativist from the outset: many
students will come to the Course with their heads full of regime-change rhetoric
unproblematically asserting the unexamined superiority of 'democracy' and the necessity
of imposing it - as Thucydides might have said - 'wherever one can'. One early
pedagogical aim will be thus to problematize and defamiliarize Modern democracy and
sever any easy assimilation of it to Ancient. I shall not only be comparing/contrasting
Ancient with Modern, though, but also - and at first equally or more - Ancient with
Ancient, and indeed Ancient Democracy with Oligarchy (which could sometimes be
represented as really quite 'democratic'). Aristotle - our guide in this as in so much else
where ancient politics are concerned - claimed to distinguish four species of the genus
dêmokratia. We shall follow in the same line of thought by comparing Athenian
democracy - itself a moving target, with quite distinct evolutionary stages and
revolutionary stations of the cross - with other (of course, far less well documented)
democracies, such as those of Mantineia and Elis in the 5th century, or Thebes in the 4th.
We shall moreover continue the story, beyond what I take to be a quite defensible lower
terminus for Athenian democracy (322/1), into the Hellenistic period, where the evidence
is even thinner, but at least Rhodes kept some sort of democratic flag flying in the face of
first Hellenistic Greek, then Roman assault. (Republican) Rome, I shall argue, has no true
place in a history of democracy, as anciently understood by the Greeks. Indeed, I shall
track the devolution of the term 'dêmokratia ' from its human-level instantiation and
suprahuman sacralization by democratic Athens to its denaturing by Cicero, Aelius
Aristeides and others in the 'central' Roman era, and (well) beyond that into the 6thcentury Byzantine world of Justinian.
I am also myself interested in the resumption, really re-invention, of 'Democracy' (socalled) in the 19th century (a topic currently being explicated with immense subtlety by
Darwin's former Finley Fellow, Alexandra Lianeri). But for the purposes of the Course I
shall confine myself to looking at some more or less vague foreshadowings or inklings of
Modern Democracy in the European middle ages, the 17th-century English 'Revolution'
(Putney/Leveller Debates) and more especially at the claims to Antique Greek
'democratic' legitimacy put forward by the American and more especially some of the
French Revolutionaries of the later 18th century.
Which is a convenient reminder (as per Jenny Tolbert Roberts, 1994) that the dominant
tradition of Western political thought both in and since Antiquity has in fact been *anti*democratic, more specifically anti-the more radical species of Democracy theorized by
Aristotle in the Politics. That long tradition has been and is being undermined, though it
is far as yet from being overthrown, by various shapes and forms of Direct Democracy
advocates, including those who point to the - technical - possibility of the new
information technology's informing and making realisable the Global Democratic
Village.
There follows below a provisional outline of the Lectures and Classes. Besides these,
which for the most part I should expect to give myself, I would like to call on the wealth
of local talent - e.g., Melissa Lane, Annabel Brett, Geoffrey Lloyd, John Dunn, Geoff
Hawthorn, Janet Coleman (LSE but Cambridge-resident) - in political theory and
philosophy that concerns itself specifically with Democracy and its ancient forerunners.
This could be done by holding a small conference, or by a series of seminars, or some
other means, though I might invite one or other of the above-named to give a lecture or
class as part of the formal Lecture programme.
I should add that, although the Course will contain some discussion of ancient Greek and
modern democratic political theory/thought, it will not substantially overlap or clash with
the Historical Tripos's History of Political Thought paper.
LECTURES (24 incl. CL)
Aims and Objectives
�To explore the meanings of 'Democracy' both Ancient (mainly Greek) and Modern
(incl. current)
�To enhance understanding of the special circumstances required to make possible both
the emergence and the continuation of People Power at Athens
�To compare and contrast the democracy (democracies) that were created in Athens with
those to be found elsewhere in the Greek world, a world of (at mostperiods) 1000 or so
poleis (citizen states)
�To appreciate the development of ancient political thinking and theory about
democracy, and not least comprehend its typically anti-democratic bent
�To track the devolution or degradation of the original Greek conception(s) and practices
of democracy through the Hellenistic Greek world, late Republican and early Imperial
Rome, and down as far as early Byzantium (6th c. CE)
�To follow some of the trajectory of post-Ancient democracy, in the European Middle
Ages, in Revolutionary England, America and France, and in its reconstituted or reinvented forms of the 19th century and beyond
1 Introduction: Lost in Translation? Modern and Contemporary Appropriations of
Democracy I
2 Modern and Contemporary Appropriations of Democracy II: Grote, Mill, Finley,
Hansen & Ober
3 The Emergence of the Polis/Politics/the Political: Homer, Hesiod, Theognis
4 The Emergence of Democracy I: Archaic Greece (Crete, Chios) & Solon of Athens
5 The Emergence of Democracy II: Cleisthenes
6 The Emergence of Democracy III: Ephialtes, Pericles, Syracuse
7 Athenian Democracy pre-403 BCE I: Theory
8 Athenian Democracy pre-403 BCE II: Practice
9 Athenian Democracy pre-403 BCE III: Culture
10 Democracy in Crisis: Corcyra 427, Athens 411, 404-3
11 Democracy on Trial: Trial of Socrates 399
12 Half-time Retrospect: Class Discussion
13 The Golden Age of Greek Democracy (c.375-50): Thebes, Mantineia etc
14 How did the 4th-c. Athenian Democracy Work in the Age of Lycurgus? I: Macrocosm
(Council, Assembly, Lawcourts)
15 How did the 4th-c. Athenian Democracy Work in the Age of Lycurgus? II:
Microcosm (the Deme)
16 Retrospect on Classical Greek esp. Athenian Democracy
17 Hellenistic Democracy I: General, esp. Athens II: Rhodes
18 Roman Republic I: Polybius's Roman Constitution
19 Roman Republic II: the 'Millar Thesis' of Roman 'Democracy'
20 Roman Empire: Aelius Aristeides and the Principate
21 Democracy Denied I: Late Antiquity & European Middle Ages
22 Democracy Denied II: England (17th c.), America & France (18th)
23 Democracy Reinvented: 19th c. Britain & Tocqueville's America
24 Retrospect & Prospect
Core Bibliography
i. Primary Sources: Workings of Democracy
Aristotle Constitution of the Athenians (trans. Peter Rhodes, Penguin
Classics)
Aristotle Politics (trans. T.A. Sinclair, Penguin Classics)
Aristophanes, esp. Knights (424 BC) and Wasps (422), ed. & trans.
Alan Sommerstein (Aris & Phillips)
ii. Primary sources: Thought about Democracy
a. Pro-Democracy - Thucydides 2.34-46 (the Periclean Funeral Oration), Herodotus 3.80
(Persian Debate), Protagoras, Democritus
b. Anti-Democracy - Thucydides 2.65, 8.97.2; The 'Old Oligarch', in J.M. Moore,
Aristotle and Xenophon on Democracy and Oligarchy (1983, new edn R. Osborne,
LACTOR 2003); Xenophon, A History of My Times Book 1, chapter 7 (trs. R. Warner,
Penguin Classics); Xenophon, Conversations of Socrates (trs. R. Waterfield, Penguin
Classics); Xenophon: Hiero the Tyrant & Other Treatises (trs. R. Waterfield, notes and
intros P. Cartledge, rev. edn 2006, Penguin Classics) Plato, Republic (trs. R. Waterfield,
Oxford Worlds Classics)
iii. Modern work (provisional selection)
Cartledge, P.A. 1998, rev. pb 2002 (ed.)The Cambridge Illustrated
History of Ancient Greece. Cambridge
Osborne, R. 2008 (ed.)The World of Athens, 2nd edn. Cambridge
Rhodes, P.J. 2003. Ancient Democracy and Modern Ideology.
London.
Rhodes, P.J. 2004 (ed.) Athenian Democracy. Edinburgh [reader]
Roberts, J.T. 1994. Athens on Trial. The Anti-Democratic Tradition
in Western Thought. Princeton.
Robinson, E.W. 1997. The First Democracies. Early Popular
Government outside Athens. (Historia Einzelschr. 107). Stuttgart.
Robinson, E.W. 2004. (ed.) Ancient Greek Democracy. Readings and
Sources. Cambridge, MA, & Oxford.
Rodewald, C.A. Democracy: Ideas and Realities. Toronto & London
[sourcebook]
Samons, Loren J., II 1998. (ed.) Athenian Democracy and
Imperialism. Boston [sources and modern work]
Specimen Paper
1. To what extent can an evolutionary prehistory or protohistory of democracy be
detected in the literature from Homer to Solon?
2. What difference did the tyrants make to the emergence of democracy at Athens?
3. When do you think democracy properly so called emerged at Athens?
4. 'Government by mass meeting'. Discuss that characterization of Athenian democracy.
5. To what extent was Athenian democracy rule in and of the Deme?
6. 'Democracy at Athens was a mass culture as much as or more than it was a set of
institutions'. Discuss.
7. Just how either participatory in practice was the Athenian democracy?
8. EITHER (a) Was Pericles the uncrowned king of Athens?
OR (b) Does the phrase 'Periclean Athens' make any sense?
9. How different was the post-403 Athenian democracy from the democracy overthrown
by the Thirty?
10. Why was the second quarter of the fourth century the golden age of democracy in the
Greek world as a whole?
11. EITHER (a) To what extent was democracy anything more than a slogan in the
Hellenistic Greek world?
OR (b) How far did Hellenistic Rhodes manage to perpetuate a form of democracy that
would have been recognisable to a fourth-century democrat?
12. Did Polybius have the faintest inkling of how the Roman Republic of the 2nd c. BCE
actually worked?
13. Are there any good arguments for supposing that the Roman Republic of the 1st c.
BCE may in any useful sense be labelled 'democratic'?
14. To what effect did either French or American Revolutionaries appeal to ancient
Greece?
15. How far do you think it feasible to inflect modern democracy for the better by
applying ancient democratic notions and practices?
Supervisions
The standard number of Classics supervisions for this paper is five, as for other Part II
Classics papers. These will normally be four fortnightly in one of the first 2 terms and
one in Easter Term. Candidates taking this paper as part of the History Tripos may
request their supervisor to hold six supervisions in one term, but they should be aware of
the advantage of fortnightly supervisions given the breadth of the topics dealt with by this
paper.
The following are the sorts of topics suitable for supervision essays, with the most
relevant and/or accessible bibliography drawn from both the Core and the Further
Reading sections above:
1. Prehistory and Early History of Ancient Democracy: When do you think democracy
properly so called emerged at Athens?
i. Prehistory (to Cleisthenes)
Anderson 2003
Berent 1994
Brock 1991
Carlier 1998
Cartledge 1998, 200b
Eder 1998
Farrar 1988
Mossé 1979/2004
Shapiro 1989
ii. Cleisthenes to Pericles
Anderson 2003
Brock 1991
Camassa 2000
Davies 2003
Dunn 1993, 1992 ed.
Eder 1998
Hansen 1990a
Ober 1996: ch. 4
O'Neil 1995
Osborne 2006
Pritchard 2004
Raaflaub, Ober & Wallace 2007
de Ste. Croix 2004
2. Nature of Ancient Democracy: 'Government by mass meeting'?
Eder 1991
Hansen 1989a, 1989b
Hopper 1957
Jones 1957: ch. 2
Manville & Ober 2003
Markle 1985/2004
Ober 1989
Ostwald 1996/2004
Sinclair 1988
3. Culture (as opposed to institutions of Democracy): e.g., at Athens, the theatre, or
public official visual art, and exclusion of women therefrom
Berent 1996
Boedeker & Raaflaub eds 1998
Bordes 1982
Camp 1986
Cartledge 1996
Cartledge 1997
Jameson 1997/2004
Loraux 1993
McGlew 2003
Ober 1989
Osborne 1993/2004
4. Role of Individual Politicians: Pericles, Demosthenes.
i. Pericles
Thucydides
Plutarch Life of Pericles
Kagan 1991
Podlecki 1998
ii. Demosthenes
Demosthenes, speeches, esp. 18 & 19
Aeschines, speeches, esp. 2 and 3
Plutarch Life of Demosthenes
Harris 1995
Sealey 1993
5. Rome and Democracy? Roman Democracy?
Briscoe 1967/1974
de Ste. Croix 1981/1983
vs.
Millar 2002a, 2002b
6. Democracy Ancient and Modern: reflect on essential differences, and try to explain
either (i) why modern revolutionaries have or have not been ancient Greek-style
democrats and/or (ii) how an understanding of ancient democracy might contribute to the
reconstruction of any modern democratic system.
Brett 2003
Dunn 1993, 2005
Dunn ed. 1992
Nippel 1994
Richard 1994
Book Proposal
Paul Cartledge
Democracy: A Life from Ancient Greek Womb to Modern Global Tomb
1. Democracy Now
We are all democrats (small 'd') now - are we not? But go back only a couple of centuries
- to the era of the American and French Revolutions - and the number of democrats of
any stripe, that is political activists actually calling themselves that, shrinks to minuscule
proportions. Indeed, the puzzle is less that there were so few of them around in 1800 than
that there are so many of us around today. For in ancient Greece, where the word and
concept were first coined, it was not only Plato and Aristotle but pretty much every major
thinker we know of who was more or less hostile in principle as well as for pragmatic
reasons to any form of democracy. And from ancient Greece onwards - or downwards there can be traced a Western tradition of anti-democratic thought (as discussed in Jenny
Roberts's excellent 1994 book).
That hostile tradition indeed continued almost unchallenged (see section 3 below on the
Levellers and Diggers) until the later 18th century, the era of the American and French
Revolutions. Yet, although those Revolutions were universally, uniformly and centrally
anti-Monarchist, only a very few ideologues on either side of the Atlantic espoused
anything that they would wish to be even remotely identified with ancient Greek-style
democracy. Indeed one of the leading theorists of the American Revolution, James
Madison, argued in favour of his 'republican' politics precisely by attacking ancient Greek
'faction' politics which he identified particularly as a cancre in the democracy of ancient
Athens (see esp. Federalist Paper number 10). That was a view with which his British
contemporary the historian Edward Gibbon would have agreed wholeheartedly, though
his anti-democratic ire was directed more against the French revolutionaries of his own
day, some of whom - such as St Just - did indeed look back to ancient Greece for
inspiration and validation.
It was not in fact for very many years after 1776 or 1789 that American or French
politicians dared apply let alone advocate the word 'democracy' for their own constitution
- it seems to have been the French aristocrat Alexis de Tocqueville who first wrote firmly
and positively of 'Democracy in America'. And, when politicians finally did claim to be
democrats, that was part of a much wider, Euro-American and 'Western' process of
recuperation and appropriation. Or rather invention: of a quite different kind of
democracy. To put the difference in a nutshell, the ancient Greeks' democracy was direct
and participatory, the rule of the masses, whereas what has become our democracy (postAmerican and French Revolutionary) is representative. Whereas theirs was truly
government by the People as well as Of and For the People, ours (despite Lincoln's
famous rhetoric at Gettysburg) is merely Of and For. It is really government By others by 'the government', indeed, as opposed to by 'We, the People'. Indeed, the differences
between the two kinds of democracy, ancient and modern, are so great that the history of
why and how 'democracy' was - eventually - chosen as the most suitable label for modern
self-government is itself a fascinating story - though not one that falls within the scope of
this book, which will end, firmly, so far as the main life-story of democracy goes, not
later than 1800.
2. Democracy - what is/was it?
In short, any 'biography' of democracy, such as this, has to face the fact that we are
dealing with a case of multiple personality - and accompanying multiple personality
disorder. Ancient Greek democracy was, as noted, a very different beast from anything
we understand by democracy or indeed politics today. A major part of the purpose of the
early chapters of this book will therefore be to bring out those differences. I shall begin
with Aristotle (384-322), because he is far and away our most acute and best-informed
source on ancient Greek political thought and practice during and down to his own day
(the later 4th century BCE, the time of Alexander the Great, whose tutor he had been).
But it must be remembered that he was a political theorist or philosopher, rather than a
political scientist, as we understand that term, and he had his agendas, not the least of
which was to persuade his students and other readers that only within the framework of
the Greek polis, or citizen-state, could the truly good political life be lived - by free, adult
male citizens, full participatory members of a strong political community.
In his Politics (literally, 'matters concrning the polis') he drew a sweeping distinction
between oligarchy and democracy. The former, he claimed - and he was talking only
about states in Greece, of which there were about 1000, and only about the adult male
citizens of those states - was always in essence the Rule of the Rich, whereas the latter,
democracy, was always essentially the Rule of the Poor. 'Oligarchy' was therefore the
appropriate term, since it meant literally the rule (arche) of the few (oligoi), and only a
few of the citizens were - seriously - rich. However, 'Democracy' could also mean the
rule (kratos) of all the People (Demos), rich as well as poor citizens. So Aristotle's
understanding and interpretation of the term were based on Demos's other main meaning,
namely the mass or majority of the citizens who were by definition poor. Indeed, so
wedded was Aristotle to an economic (one might almost say proto-Marxist) interpretation
of the essential distinction between Oligarchy and Democracy that he was prepared,
theoretically and with deliberate paradoxic, to call even a system of majority or mass rule
'Oligarchy' if that majority consisted of the Rich and not (as was in fact the case in reality
everywhere) the unpropertied Poor.
Aristotle, being Aristotle, a zoological taxonomist at heart, did not stop at that broad
bipolar distinction, not by any means. He went on to identify, classify and analyse no
fewer than four species each of the two genera, Oligarchy and Democracy. At the outer
limits, the most extreme species of Oligarchy and Democracy respectively had little or
nothing in common with each other, byond the fact that they were both instances of
properly political (from polis) self-rule or governance. But the two most moderate species
of each genus showed, on the other hand, considerable similarity and overlap, both in
theory (as to how and to whom power should be allocated) and practice (by what means
political decisions should be reached). Aristotle himself, again being Aristotle, believed
in and advocated a golden mean, a compromise between Oligarchy and Aristocracy that
would represent his best possible and most likely realisable and sustainable form of polis.
But he was empirically clued-up and savvy enough to admit that such a form of polis had
only very rarely been achieved. Rather, as he could not help but observe, the tendency of
Greek politics in practice was always to go for the extreme, even at the cost of
considerable civil strife or even civil bloodshed - for which the Greek term was stasis:
literally a 'standing', that is a divisive, or murderous, standing apart, and standing against,
involving dedicated oligarchic or democratic factions.
3. Why write a Biography of Democracy?
I have a very personal reason for wanting to write this Biography of ancient democracy
and its legacies. I grew up and spent most of my pre-University life in Putney, south-west
London. Countless times from the age of ten onwards, I crossed Putney Bridge on my
way to and from school in West Kensington. But it was only many many years later,
thanks mainly to , Geoffrey de Ste. Croix, my undergraduate teacher of Greek history at
New College Oxford, that I first became aware of the historic significance of the church
that sits on the south side of that bridge. For it was in St Mary's, Putney, late in 1647 that
a famous series of debates took place over the properly political issues of who should rule
England, and how. Oliver Cromwell, the future Lord Protector, took part in the Putney or
Leveller Debates as they are known, though he was no Leveller himself. Yet such was the
ferment of political thought created by and indeed fuelling the English Civil War that
even the radical Levellers quickly found themselves ideologically outflanked, or perhaps
undermined, by a group calling themselves the Diggers. Both those groups, unlike
Cromwell, wished to widen the franchise and believed in some sort of popular decisionmaking on certain issues, but whereas the Levellers retained the old belief that only
property-owners - those owning a certain minimum of real property - were properly
entitled and qualified to take part in politics and make such decisions, the Diggers argued
that being a freeborn Englishman (adult and male) was by itself a sufficient qualification.
So, in their way, the Levellers and Diggers were re-enacting a very ancient, Greek debate,
one that took place both between ideologically driven oligarchs and democrats and
between the more and the less radical democrats.
Actually, I was not the only one who had been rather slow to catch on to the wider
significance and resonance of the Leveller Debates. Although a shorthand record of them
had been made and preserved, it wasn't until the 19th century, some 300 years later, that
they emerged fully into the light of political and historical scrutiny. Thereafter they have
come to form an essential link in the British discourse and tradition of 'liberty', and,
indeed, in the genealogy of modern Western political discourse and practice as a whole.
For me, though, despite Ste. Croix's early Oxonian inspiration, it was only when I moved
to Cambridge in 1979 that I became aware of, because directly exposed to, that political
tradition and genealogy of discourse. This was thanks to the existence of what's come to
be known as the 'Cambridge School' of applied political theory, a tendency of historically
contextualised scholarship spearheaded by Peter Laslett, John Pocock and Garry
Runciman in the 1950s and 1960s, then taken on by Quentin Skinner, John Dunn,
Richard Tuck and others in the 1960s and 1970s and beyond, down to the present day.
And it is to that locally flourishing and globally influential school of intellectual-political
thought that my next book to appear (later this month) is directly indebted: Ancient Greek
Political Thought in Practice (to be published by the C.U.P. in the 'Key Themes in
Ancient History' series that I co-founded and co-edit). I here survey, by way of case-
studies, the emergence and development of Greek politics and political thought between
about 800 and 500 BCE, the invention of political theory somewhere between 500 and
450 BCE, and - intimately connected to the latter - the emergence and development of
democracy, first at Athens in c. 500, but at its widest distribution and greatest flourishing
in the Greek world round about 350 BCE, when Aristotle was in his 30s. I then trace the
decline, indeed assassination, of genuinely democratic Greek institutions and culture at
the hands first of the Macedonians (both in old Greece and in the new, enlarged, postAlexander 'Hellenistic' Greek world) and then, decisively, of the Romans. (In the 2nd c.
CE one cringingly fawning Greek speechifier could even sink to speaking of the Roman
empire as a 'perfect democracy - under one man'!)
4. Rival Studies?
Which explains why in this next book, Democracy: A Life from Ancient Greek Womb to
Modern Global Tomb, one of my major motivations is to go back to the beginning of the
story, to recuperate and do some sort of retrospective justice to the truly remarkable
achievement that was ancient Greek democracy. In terms of chronological/geographical
scope and cognitive shape (esp. comparativist intent), there is no other such study out
there in the market right now, though there have of course been many specialist studies
that seek to bring out the essential differences between Ancient and Modern versions of
Democracy. I think at once of two books by a former Professor of Ancient History at
Cambridge, Sir Moses Finley - Politics in the Ancient World (1983) and Democracy
Ancient and Modern (1973, 2nd edn 1985).
But the closest parallel to the sort of coverage I shall be attempting is the essay collection
edited by John Dunn (a former undergraduate pupil of Finley) entitled Democracy: the
Unfinished Journey 508 BC - AD 1993 - the date of publication, 1992, was intended to
coincide roughly with the 2500th anniversary of the initial founding of a form of
Democracy at Athens in 508/7BCE. Dunn is also the author of Democracy: A History
(2006), but that is a very potted history, and not heavily weighted as mine shall be
towards the Ancient (Greek) side of the equation. Of my ancient historian colleagues I
would single out the work of Josh Ober (Stanford), but his chief project of late has been
the very different one of trying to rectify the 'democratic deficit', that is, advocating the
application of ancient Greek democratic ideas to correct or to compensate for some of the
defects, as he sees them to be, of modern (esp. U.S.) so-called 'democracy'.
5. A Plan of the Book:
i. Aims and Objectives
�To explore the meanings of 'Democracy' both Ancient (mainly Greek) and Modern
(incl. current)
�To enhance understanding of the special circumstances required to make possible both
the emergence and the continuation of Demo-kratia (People Power) at Athens
�To compare and contrast the democracy (democracies) that were created in Athens with
those to be found elsewhere in the Greek world, a world of (at most periods) 1000 or so
poleis (citizen states)
�To appreciate the development of ancient political thinking and theory about
democracy, and not least comprehend its typically anti-democratic bent
�To track the devolution or degradation of the original Greek conception(s) and practices
of democracy through the Hellenistic Greek world, on through late Republican and early
Imperial Rome, and down as far as early Byzantium (6th c. CE)
�To follow some of the trajectory of post-Ancient democracy, or at least vaguely
popular self-government, in the European Middle Ages (esp. the city-states of Italy), in
Revolutionary 17th-century England, and 18th-century America and France, and (by way
of contrast and closure only) in its reconstituted or re-invented forms of the 19th century
and later.
ii. Possible Chapters
PART ONE
1 Introduction: Lost in Translation? (Modern and Contemporary Appropriations of
Democracy I - for II, see Ch. 19)
PART TWO GREECE
2 The Emergence of the Polis/Politics/the Political: Homer, Hesiod, Theognis
3 The Emergence of Proto-Democracy : Archaic Greece (Crete, Chios) & Solon of
Athens
4 The Emergence of Democracy Proper: Cleisthenes (508/7BCE), Ephialtes and Pericles
(462/1) of Athens
5 The Emergence of Democracy at Syracuse (460s)
6 Athenian Democracy pre-403 BCE I: Theory
7 Athenian Democracy pre-403 BCE II: Practice
8 Athenian Democracy pre-403 BCE III: Culture
9 Democracy in Crisis I: Corcyra 427, Athens 411, 404-3
10 Democracy in Crisis II: Trial of Socrates 399
11 The Golden Age of Greek Democracy (c.375-50): Thebes, Mantineia etc
12 How did the 4th-c. Athenian Democracy Work in the Age of Lycurgus? i: Macrocosm
(Council, Assembly, Lawcourts) ii: Microcosm (the Deme)
13 Post-Classical (Hellenistic) Greek Democracy: Rhodes and Athens
PART THREE
ROME
14 Roman Republic Polybius's Roman Constitution and the 'Millar Thesis' of Roman
'Democracy'
15 Roman Empire: Aelius Aristeides and the Principate
PART FOUR
MEDIEVAL & EARLY MODERN EUROPE
16 Democracy Denied I: Late Antiquity & European Middle Ages
17 Democracy Denied II: England (17th c.), America & France (18th)
PART FIVE
MODERN & CONTEMPORARY
18 Democracy Reinvented: 19th c. Britain & Tocqueville's America
19 Modern and Contemporary Appropriations of Ancient Democracy II: from George
Grote, via John Stuart Mill, Moses Finley, and Mogens Hansen to Josiah Ober