What was the social and political crucible in which democracy was born? In 510 BCE, a revolution seized Athens, ousting the reigning oligarchs and transforming the workings of civic governance—quite literally from the ground up. It was Athenian democracy that instituted the territory as a locus of identity and political belonging, eradicating the traditional social bonds of familial affiliation and replacing these with a concept of place-based identity (citizenship) meant to hedge the perennial threat of a reversion to aristocratic rule. Athenian democrats radically and rationally reorganized the city’s legal and political systems, establishing participatory democracy on ethical grounds: active and direct participation in the governance of a well-run society was understood as essential to human flourishing. Yet, such participation was limited to citizens—thus excluding women, enslaved individuals, and non-citizen residents, whose roles within the city were nevertheless extensive and foundational. How did radical democrats conceptualize, advance, and defend their political goals? What was democratic ideology, and democratic practice, actually like in 5th century Athens?
In this course, we will explore Athenian democracy in the words of its contemporaries—drawing on texts by the historians (Herodotus, Thucydides, Xenophon), the playwrights and comic poets (Aeschylus and Aristophanes), the orators (Lysias), the philosophers (Plato and Aristotle), and the cranks (the “Old Oligarch”). As many of these sources are skeptical of—when not explicitly hostile to—the aspirations of the radical democracy, we will ask: how can we recover the arguments that Athenian democrats offered for their own rule? We will also consider throughout our discussions the role of non-citizens within Athenian civic practice and imagination, as well as the connections between Athenian democracy and imperialism. Finally, we will take up some contemporary reflections on the significance and legacy of Athenian democracy from thinkers like Hannah Arendt, Cornelius Castoriadis, M. I. Finley, G. E. M. de Ste. Croix, and Ellen Meiksins Wood.
