Democracy : a life

Democracy A life

Paul Cartledge

Book - 2016

"Ancient Greece first coined the concept of "democracy," yet almost every major ancient Greek thinker--from Plato and Aristotle onwards--were ambivalent or even hostile to democracy in any form. The explanation is quite simple: the elite perceived majority power as tantamount to a dictatorship of the proletariat. In ancient Greece there can be traced not only the rudiments of modern democratic society but the entire Western tradition of anti-democratic thought. In Democracy: A Life, Paul Cartledge provides a detailed history of this ancient political system. In addition, by drawing out the salient differences between ancient and modern forms of democracy he enables a richer understanding of both. Cartledge contends that there... is no one "ancient Greek democracy" as pure and simple as is often believed. Democracy surveys the emergence and development of Greek politics, the invention of political theory, and-intimately connected to the latter-the birth of democracy, first at Athens in c. 500 BCE and then at its greatest flourishing in the Greek world around 350 BCE. Cartledge then traces the decline of genuinely democratic Greek institutions at the hands of the Macedonians and--subsequently and decisively--the Romans. Authoritative and accessible, Democracy: A Life will be regarded as the best account of ancient democracy and its long afterlife"--

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Subjects
Democracy > Greece > History > To 1500.
Democracy > History.
Greece > Politics and government > To 146 B.C.
Published
New York, NY : Oxford University Press [2016]
Language
English
Main Author
Paul Cartledge (author)
Physical Description
xxvi, 383 pages : illustrations, maps ; 25 cm
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN
9780199837458
9780190866273
  • List of Illustrations
  • List of Maps
  • Preface
  • Acknowledgements
  • Timeline
  • Prologue Lost in Translation? Modern and Contemporary Appropriations of Democracy I
  • Act I.
  • Chapter 1. Sources, Ancient and Modern
  • Chapter 2. The Emergence of the Polls, Politics, and the Political: Modern and Contemporary Appropriations of Democracy II
  • Act II.
  • Chapter 3. The Emergence of Greek Democracy I: Archaic Greece
  • Chapter 4. The Emergence of Greek Democracy II: Athens 508/7
  • Chapter 5. The Emergence of Greek Democracy III: Athens 507-451/0
  • Chapter 6. Greek Democratic Theory?
  • Chapter 7. Athenian Democracy in Practice c. 450-335
  • Chapter 8. Athenian Democracy: Culture and Society c. 450-335
  • Chapter 9. Greek Democracy in Credit and Crisis I: The Fifth Century
  • Chapter 10. Athenian Democracy in Court: The Trials of Demos, Socrates, and Ctesiphon
  • Act III.
  • Chapter 11. Greek Democracy in Credit and Crisis II: The Golden Age of Greek Democracy (c. 375-350) and Its Critics
  • Chapter 12. Athenian Democracy at Work in the 'Age of Lycurgus'
  • Chapter 13. The Strange Death of Classical Greek Democracy: A Retrospect
  • Act IV.
  • Chapter 14. Hellenistic Democracy? Democracy in Deficit c. 323-86 BCE
  • Chapter 15. The Roman Republic: A Sort of Democracy?
  • Chapter 16. Democracy Denied: The Roman and Early Byzantine Empires
  • Chapter 17. Democracy Eclipsed: Late Antiquity, the European Middle Ages, and the Renaissance
  • Act V.
  • Chapter 18. Democracy Revived: England in the Seventeenth Century and France in the Late Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Centuries
  • Chapter 19. Democracy Reinvented: The United States in the Late Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Centuries and Tocqueville's America
  • Chapter 20. Democracy Tamed: Nineteenth-Century Great Britain
  • Epilogue Democracy Now: Retrospect and Prospects
  • Notes and References
  • Bibliography and Further Reading
  • Index
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

In this erudite and highly technical history, Cartledge (After Thermopylae), emeritus professor of Greek culture at Cambridge University, revisits the roots of democracy to understand how ancient Greeks understood and practiced it. Fundamentally distinct from democratic theories espoused today, the Greeks' notion of democracy emphasized the "rule of the poor" over the rich, creating a political system that was, to its detractors, little more than mob rule. As Cartledge moves through the history of this largely (but not solely) Athenian institution, he finds it constantly under threat from internal and external forces seeking to either pervert democracy or supplant it with oligarchy. Such turbulence means that there is no singular Greek democracy of which to speak, and Cartledge runs through a number of versions as they were implemented and practiced. In comparing these differing species to one another-and, in the final chapters, to the democratic systems birthed in the early modern era-Cartledge teases out what is essential and what is adaptive about ancient democracy. Piecing together a cogent narrative from a series of largely incomplete, inaccurate, or contradictory sources-many of them secondhand-is very difficult, but Cartledge nevertheless manages to bring ancient democracy to life, warts and all. (Apr.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Review by Kirkus Book Review

A compact but rich education in classics and democracy, from a leading expert who delights in his subject. Cartledge (Emeritus, Greek Culture/Univ. of Cambridge; After Thermopylae: The Oath of Plataea and the End of the Graeco-Persian Wars, 2013, etc.) easily entertains while teaching us of the reforms of Solon and Ephialtes, the histories of Herodotus, Thucydides, and Polybius, and the philosophical writings of Aristotle. Understanding the Greek terminology is a large part of the growth of demokratia, and the author, who holds the Gold Cross of the Order of Honor from the president of Greece, makes sure we understand the subtleties. There was no single form of democracy; in fact, there were as many as 1,000 different political entities in ancient Greece. Sparta's opposition to democracy played a large part in inhibiting its spread in the Aegean world. Plato, too, was anti-democratic, seeing the institution as mob tyranny. In Cartledge's view, there was no kratos (power) exercised by any demos (citizen) until at least 500 B.C.E. Argos, Naxos, Corinth, and Syracuse had popular governments, but Athens led the way as a direct democracy. Athens' system of self-government based national government on the local demes, where adult males had to be inscribed on the citizen register. The author stresses the difference between the direct and representative forms of government, noting how population numbers preclude direct participation in modern times. By 30 B.C.E., the Romans had engulfed the Hellenistic world, stamped out her democratic institutions, and set the tone for political life until the 18th century. Democracy was effectively shunted aside as the Catholic Church and feudalism dictated the divinely ordered power of kings and lords. Moving onward toward the Enlightenment, we find so many of the same arguments among Rousseau, Voltaire, Burke, and Thomas Paine, where men want equality, as long as some are more equal than others. No library should be without this wonderful book, in which Cartledge has abundantly shared his love and knowledge of ancient Greece with us. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

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