The Instrumental Value of Others and Institutional Change: An Athenian Case Study

Abstract

The question of what the ancient Greeks can tell us about democracy can be answered by reference to three fields that have traditionally been pursued with little reference to one another: ancient history, classical political theory, and political science. These fields have been coming into more fruitful contact over the last 20 years, as evidenced by a spate of interdisciplinary work. Historians, political theorists, and political scientists interested in classical Greek democracy are increasingly capable of leveraging results across disciplinary lines. As a result, the classical Greek experience has more to tell us about the origins and definition of democracy, and about the relationship between participatory democracy and formal institutions, rhetoric, civic identity, political values, political criticism, war, economy, culture, and religion.

On the Institutional Roots of Swiss Democracy

“…It goes back to the 'Bücher-Meyer controversy' (the modernists versus the primitivists) concerning the ancient economy [31,32,33]. It was taken up again by scholars such as Polanyi [34], Humphreys [35] and Finley [36] who argued that the ancient economy was embedded in the social, political and cultural context and so was primitive, a thesis that has been refuted by more recent studies concerning the economy, [31,[37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45] who argue that the ancient Greek economy, and particularly that of Athens, functioned much like the economies and markets of today.…”