Power and the People: The Enduring Legacy of Athenian Democracy

by Alev Scott, Andronike Makres

Overview

Democracy was born in Athens. From the city's founding myths to its golden age and chaotic downfall, this timely and well-informed political history is rich with lessons for contemporary America.

Why did vital civic engagement and fair debate in Athens descend into populism and paralysis? Can we compare the demagogue Cleon to President Trump; the Athenian Empire to modern America; or the stubborn island of Melos to Brexit Britain? How did a second referendum save the Athenians from a bloodthirsty decision? Who were the last defenders of democracy in the changing, globalized world of the fourth century BC—and how do we unconsciously echo these leaders today?

With verve and acuity, the heroics and the critics of Athenian democracy are brought to bear on today's politics, revealing in all its glories and its flaws the system that still survives to execute the power of the people.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781643135625
Publisher:	Pegasus Books
Publication date:	09/01/2020
Pages:	272
Sales rank:	283,654
Product dimensions:	5.80(w) x 8.20(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Alev Scott studied Classics at New College, Oxford, where she was taught by Robin Lane Fox. Alev taught herself Turkish and immersed herself in the Turkish side of her heritage and wrote the widely acclaimed Ottoman Odyssey. She has since reported from Turkey for a wide number of newspapers, most specifically for the Financial Times.

Andronike Makres is a founding member of the Hellenic Education & Research Center in Athens. She graduated from the University of Athens and holds a doctorate in Ancient History from Oxford University. She lives in Athens.

Table of Contents

Timeline of Athenian Democracy vii

Introduction 1

Demokratia: The Life and Death of Athenian Democracy 13

Extreme Equality 15

System Abuse 17

The Acropolis 22

How Democracy Began: A Crime Passionnel 28

Feminine Democracy 33

Heroes of the Sixth and Fifth Centuries BC 38

Twelve Hundred Angry Men: a case study in justice 48

Hell-Bound Philosophers: a case study in academic freedom 53

From Direct to Representative Democracy 60

A Masterclass in Democracy from Ancient Athens 65

Lesson 1 Don't Be an Idiotes 66

Lesson 2 Stop the Demagogues 105

Lesson 3 Think Again 135

Lesson 4 Widen the Net 156

Lesson 5 Don't be a Superpower 191

Acropolis Redux: Ancient Democracy in a Digital Age 211

Return of the Council of Five Hundred 214

Return to the Pnyx 223

The Owl of Athena 229

Notes 239

Select Bibliography 247

Suggested Further Reading 248

Authors' Note 251

Index 253

Editorial Reviews

07/13/2020

The best way to deal with the twin crises of apathy and polarization afflicting modern-day democracies is to revisit democracy’s origins in ancient Greece, according to this intriguing debut from reporter Scott (Turkish Awakening) and historian Makres. Based on the origins and early functioning of “direct and deliberative democracy” in Athens in the 4th and 5th centuries BCE, the authors posit five lessons for today. In the first (“Don’t Be an Idiotes”), they explain how ancient Athenians were required to engage as public citizens. Other lessons, including “Stop the Demagogues” and “Don’t Be a Superpower,” address weaknesses that contributed to the downfall of ancient Greece and find links to such modern-day issues as the rise of Donald Trump and the legacy of British imperialism on the Brexit campaign. Though the authors unearth plenty of interesting tidbits about the origins of democracy, they are less successful in describing how modern-day governments might be overhauled. For example, their discussion of electronic voting, online petitions, and heightened scrutiny of government policy via social media outlines the risks of such technologies but doesn’t firmly conclude whether they outweigh the benefits. This richly detailed account will leave readers enlightened about the past, but still worried about the future of democracy. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

A lovely, lyrical, and always insightful account that is as much about the present as the past. A joy from start to finish.”

Peter Frankopan

Scott tracks the vine of Turkish influence, ‘architectural, political and social,’ that laces through the Levant and the Balkans.

The New York Times Book Review (Praise for Ottoman Odyssey)

Beautifully written with clear-eyed judgments and a sharp ear for fascinating anecdote and memorable characters. Exhilarating and often eye-opening, it shows this crucial region of the world from a new perspective. Essential reading for anyone interested in Turkey and its history.

Michael Wood

Scott roams through elements of the Ottoman Empire in this bright travel narrative. She laces history with footloose journeying and the result is a restless, kaleidoscopic, and chromatic portrait of a land in flux.

Christian Science Monitor (Praise for Ottoman Odyssey)

Alev Scott approaches the crisis in the Eastern Mediterranean by side roads and unfrequented channels. Her book is clear, bright, humane, and never disheartened.

James Buchan

2020-05-13
In ancient Athens, democracy thrived because of engaged citizens.

Journalist Scott and classical scholar Makres, founding member of the Hellenic Education & Research Center in Athens, offer a spirited portrait of Athens from 621 B.C.E., when Draco wrote Athens’ first set of laws, to 322 B.C.E., when democracy was stifled under Macedonian domination. After 322, the authors write, “democracy effectively vanished from the world until the eighteenth century, when it returned in spirit with the revolutions in France and America.” What lessons can be learned from ancient Athens, the authors ask, that may be relevant to contemporary nations in which the “spirit of democratic engagement” is missing? In Athens, a tiny state of some 50,000 people, enfranchised citizens—adult males over 18—comprised only about 20% of the population, making political involvement easier than in large, diverse nations, such as India, the U.K., and the U.S. Still, the authors find some practices may be worth emulating: To ensure an informed electorate, assemblies were convened in the agora, where voters were “forced to hear the arguments both for and against any motion.” In contemporary Ireland, similar citizens’ assemblies were held prior to a vote on abortion, resulting in the astonishing outcome of ensuring abortion access in the predominantly Catholic country. A similar chance for communal deliberation may well have better informed the debate about Brexit. Today, Twitter can serve as the “modern equivalent of the agora: a space where people exchange views,” but the authors concede that social media also can intensify “demagoguery and the spread of dangerous misinformation.” Although the internet has the potential to bring power to the people, it has not solved the persistent problem of “vast, uninformed electorates.” Athenians had a name for someone “isolated from public affairs and ignorant”: idiotes. “Don’t be an idiotes,” the authors admonish.

A lively, insightful analysis of challenges to democracy.

Kirkus Reviews