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Democracy: Ancient and Modern

Overview

  • Credit value: 30 credits at Level 5
  • Convenor and tutor: Peter Martin
  • Assessment: two 500-word source analyses (20% each) and a 2000-word essay (60%)

Module description

In recent decades, pride in the ideal of democracy and trust in the mechanism of democratic systems have weakened. In this period of uncertainty, a comparison of ancient and modern democracies may prove helpful, as an exercise in defamiliarisation. In this module we question what democracy means, and do so by contrasting modern concepts and practices of democracy with ancient Greek ones. We will evaluate different democratic theories and practices; in classes, we will closely read and discuss a range of primary sources (from comic plays by Aristophanes to records of the US Federal Convention of 1787). Key themes include the exclusionary practices upon which democracies, ancient and modern, were founded; the different critiques and defences of democracy in the ancient world; and the major differences between ancient and modern democracy.

Indicative syllabus

  • Introduction: ancient democracy versus modern
  • Solon and Cleisthenes: the history (and myth) of democratic reformers
  • Classical Athens’ radical democracy
  • Athens’ oligarchic coup of 411 BCE
  • Exclusion as a foundation of democracy (1): women
  • Exclusion as a foundation of democracy (2): the enslaved
  • Ancient critics of democracy
  • Democracy in Rome?
  • A democracy or a republic? The US Federal Convention of 1787
  • Democracy today

Learning objectives

By the end of this module, you will be able to:

  • analyse a range of textual, visual and material sources
  • evaluate the ways in which reconstructions of democratic practices differ depending on the primary sources being analysed
  • consider critically the relationship between democratic political theory and practice
  • participate in informed debates about different conceptions of democracy, ancient and modern.