Democracy and Participation in Athens

Democracy and Participation in Athens PDF Author: R. K. Sinclair
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521423892
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 276

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Book Description
The public aspects of the lives of Athenian citizens (c. 450 to 322 BC.) are assessed to establish the nature and extent of citizen participation in the governing democracy of that period.

Democracy and Participation in Athens

Democracy and Participation in Athens PDF Author: R. K. Sinclair
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521423892
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 276

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Book Description
The public aspects of the lives of Athenian citizens (c. 450 to 322 BC.) are assessed to establish the nature and extent of citizen participation in the governing democracy of that period.

Democracy and Knowledge

Democracy and Knowledge PDF Author: Josiah Ober
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400828805
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 363

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Book Description
When does democracy work well, and why? Is democracy the best form of government? These questions are of supreme importance today as the United States seeks to promote its democratic values abroad. Democracy and Knowledge is the first book to look to ancient Athens to explain how and why directly democratic government by the people produces wealth, power, and security. Combining a history of Athens with contemporary theories of collective action and rational choice developed by economists and political scientists, Josiah Ober examines Athenian democracy's unique contribution to the ancient Greek city-state's remarkable success, and demonstrates the valuable lessons Athenian political practices hold for us today. He argues that the key to Athens's success lay in how the city-state managed and organized the aggregation and distribution of knowledge among its citizens. Ober explores the institutional contexts of democratic knowledge management, including the use of social networks for collecting information, publicity for building common knowledge, and open access for lowering transaction costs. He explains why a government's attempt to dam the flow of information makes democracy stumble. Democratic participation and deliberation consume state resources and social energy. Yet as Ober shows, the benefits of a well-designed democracy far outweigh its costs. Understanding how democracy can lead to prosperity and security is among the most pressing political challenges of modern times. Democracy and Knowledge reveals how ancient Greek politics can help us transcend the democratic dilemmas that confront the world today.

Origins of Democracy in Ancient Greece

Origins of Democracy in Ancient Greece PDF Author: Kurt A. Raaflaub
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520258096
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 257

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Book Description
"A balanced, high-quality analysis of the developing nature of Athenian political society and its relationship to 'democracy' as a timeless concept."—Mark Munn, author of The School of History

Democracy Beyond Athens

Democracy Beyond Athens PDF Author: Eric W. Robinson
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 0521843316
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 287

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Book Description
First full study of ancient Greek democracy in the Classical period outside Athens, which has three main goals: to identify where and when democratic governments established themselves; to explain why democracy spread to many parts of Greece; and to further our understanding of the nature of ancient democracy.

The politics of participation

The politics of participation PDF Author: Matt Qvortrup
Publisher: Manchester University Press
ISBN: 1847796982
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 204

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Book Description
We live in an age of democracy. Very few people challenge the virtues of ‘government by the people’, yet politicians and commentators are fond of decrying the ‘crisis of democracy’. How do these views square up? This book provides the answer by surveying the philosophical history of democracy and its critics and by analysing empirical data about citizen participation in Britain and other developed democracies. In addition to analysis of major political thinkers like Plato, Machiavelli and J.S. Mill, the book analyses how modern technology has influenced democracy. Among the issues discussed in the book are why people vote and what determines their decisions, what prompts citizen involvement in riots and demonstrations, whether spin doctors and designer politics pose a threat to democracy and the influence of mass media on our political behaviour. More than merely providing an overview, the book also presents original analyses of timely issues such as referendums and the consequences of postal voting. An essential book for students of politics, history and media studies, this study puts the debate about democracy into perspective and offers a solid grounding for future discussions.

Ideology of Democratic Athens

Ideology of Democratic Athens PDF Author: Matteo Barbato
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
ISBN: 1474466443
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 264

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Book Description
The debate on Athenian democratic ideology has long been polarised around two extremes. A Marxist tradition views ideology as a cover-up for Athens' internal divisions. Another tradition, sometimes referred to as culturalist, interprets it neutrally as the fixed set of ideas shared by the members of the Athenian community.

The First Democracies

The First Democracies PDF Author: Eric W. Robinson
Publisher: Franz Steiner Verlag
ISBN: 9783515069519
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 148

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Book Description
Athens is often considered to have been the birth place of democracy but there were many democracies in Greece during the Archaic and Classical periods and this is a study of the other democratic states. Robinson begins by discussing ancient and modern definitions of democracy, he then examines Greek terminology, investigates the evidence for other early democratic states and draws conclusions about its emergence.

What's Wrong with Democracy?

What's Wrong with Democracy? PDF Author: Loren J. Samons
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520251687
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 328

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Book Description
"This is unlike any recent work I know of. It offers a challenging, often refreshing, and what will certainly be a controversial assessment of classical Athenian democracy and its significance to modern America. Samons is willing to tread where few other classicists are willing to go in print. He reminds readers that the Athenian democracy offers just as many negative lessons as positive ones, and topics like the popular vote, the dangers of state payments to individual citizens, the naturally acquisitive foreign policy of democratic governments, and the place of religion in democracy all come up for discussion and criticism. Samons has written an original and very provocative book."—James Sickinger, author of Public Records and Archives in Classical Athens "Professor Samons' lively and challenging account of ancient Athens raises important questions about democracy, ancient and modern. It will surely arouse keen interest and debate."—Donald Kagan, author of The Peloponnesian War "In this elegantly written, carefully researched, and perceptive book, Samons presents a penetrating analysis of ancient Athenian democracy's dark sides. His book is as much about the errors and weaknesses of our own political system as it is about those of ancient Athens. Whether or not we agree with his critique and conclusions, this book is not merely thought-provoking: it is annoyingly discomforting, forcing us to re-examine firm beliefs and to discard easy solutions."—Kurt A. Raaflaub, author of Discovery of Freedom in Ancient Greece "In this marvelously unfashionable book, Samons debunks much of what passes in the current-day academy as scholarship on classical Athens, demonstrating that it is an ideologically-driven apology for a radically defective form of government. In the process, he casts light on the perspicacity of America's founding fathers and on the unthinking populism that threatens in our own day to ruin their legacy."—Paul A. Rahe, author of Republics Ancient and Modern: Classical Republicanism and the American Revolution "We are in the greatest age of democracy since antiquity and in the most need of guidance about the wisdom of government by majority vote. Precisely for that reason Professor Samons offers a bold and unbridled look at the nature and history of democracies, ancient and modern. He reminds us that we are capable of doing as much evil as good when constitutional protections and republican oversight are not there to moderate the instant desires of the majority. This is an engaging, provocative, and timely study of ancient Athens and modern America that should serve as a cautionary reminder to both romantic scholars and zealous diplomats."—Victor Davis Hanson, author of The Other Greeks

The Perpetual Immigrant and the Limits of Athenian Democracy

The Perpetual Immigrant and the Limits of Athenian Democracy PDF Author: Demetra Kasimis
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107052432
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 225

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Book Description
Argues that immigration politics is a central - but overlooked - object of inquiry in the democratic thought of classical Athens. Thinkers criticized democracy's strategic investments in nativism, the shifting boundaries of citizenship, and the precarious membership that a blood-based order effects for those eligible and ineligible to claim it.

Origins of Democracy in Ancient Greece

Origins of Democracy in Ancient Greece PDF Author: Kurt A. Raaflaub
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 9780520932173
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 260

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Book Description
This book presents a state-of-the-art debate about the origins of Athenian democracy by five eminent scholars. The result is a stimulating, critical exploration and interpretation of the extant evidence on this intriguing and important topic. The authors address such questions as: Why was democracy first realized in ancient Greece? Was democracy "invented" or did it evolve over a long period of time? What were the conditions for democracy, the social and political foundations that made this development possible? And what factors turned the possibility of democracy into necessity and reality? The authors first examine the conditions in early Greek society that encouraged equality and "people’s power." They then scrutinize, in their social and political contexts, three crucial points in the evolution of democracy: the reforms connected with the names of Solon, Cleisthenes, and Ephialtes in the early and late sixth and mid-fifth century. Finally, an ancient historian and a political scientist review the arguments presented in the previous chapters and add their own perspectives, asking what lessons we can draw today from the ancient democratic experience. Designed for a general readership as well as students and scholars, the book intends to provoke discussion by presenting side by side the evidence and arguments that support various explanations of the origins of democracy, thus enabling readers to join in the debate and draw their own conclusions.