Origins of Democracy in Ancient Greece (eBook)

Kurt A. Raaflaub, Josiah Ober, Robert Wallace (Autoren)

eBook Download: PDF

2007
253 Seiten
University of California Press (Verlag)
978-0-520-93217-3 (ISBN)

Infos

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.

Inhalt

About the Authors
Chronology of Events
List of Abbreviations

1. Introduction
Kurt A. Raaflaub
2. "People’s Power" and Egalitarian Trends in Archaic Greece
Kurt A. Raaflaub and Robert W. Wallace
3. Revolutions and a New Order in Solonian Athens
and Archaic Greece
Robert W. Wallace
4. "I Besieged That Man": Democracy’s Revolutionary Start
Josiah Ober
5. The Breakthrough of Demokratia in Mid-Fifth-Century Athens
Kurt A. Raaflaub
6. Democracy, Origins of: Contribution to a Debate
Paul Cartledge
7. Power to the People
Cynthia Farrar

Bibliography
Index of primary sources
general Index

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 11.1.2007
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Geschichte / Politik ► Vor- und Frühgeschichte / Antike
• Themenwelt: Geschichte ► Allgemeine Geschichte ► Vor- und Frühgeschichte
• Themenwelt: Geschichte ► Allgemeine Geschichte ► Altertum / Antike
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte ► Regional- / Ländergeschichte
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Politik / Verwaltung ► Politische Systeme
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Politik / Verwaltung ► Politische Theorie
• Schlagworte: academic • Ancient Greece • ancient historian • Ancient history • Ancient World • Athenian democracy • Athens • cleisthenes • Cultural History • Cultural Studies • easy to understand • Ephialtes • Greek Culture • Greek Democracy • Greek Government • Greek History • Philosophical • Political • Political Philosophy • Political Science • political scientist • Politics • scholarly • social change • Social History • Social Studies • Solon
• ISBN-10: 0-520-93217-X / 052093217X
• ISBN-13: 978-0-520-93217-3 / 9780520932173