Two and a half thousand years ago the small Greek city state of Athens invented a new form of political regime. Today the name of that form of regime is the only credible basis on which to claim regular and lasting political authority across the entire world. This book explains how a casual practical solution to local Greek political difficulties so long ago has come to stand virtually unchallenged as the ground for modern political authority. It shows how the idea of democracy has kept its power in a world which is utterly different from the world of classical Greece, and how the questions which the Greeks first raised about the meaning of democratic rule still loom over human political and economic institutions in a setting in which no modern population can ever rule in practice, day by day, as the Athenian demos ruled. By viewing its astonishing history across this great arc of time, the book shows why democracy today has both the power and the vulnerability which make it the key to understanding politics; and it explains why it has triumphed so decisively in the modern world. Contributors: Simon Hornblower, Cynthia Farrar, Geoffrey Lloyd, Quentin Skinner, David Wootton, Gordon S. Wood, Biancamaria Fontana, Charles S. Maier, Neil Harding, Sunil Khilnani, Susan Mendus, Neal Ascherson, John Dunn

Leading writers examine a central concept in politics

About the Author
John Dunn is the author of Locke (Past Masters) which has sold over 15,000 copies.

Reviews
A tour de force of description and analysis, taking the reader from ancient Greece to Tiananmen Square and the present disintegration of federal Yugoslavia ... the essays are bright, stimulating and of considerable interest to those who want to understand how that fragile concept, democracy, had evolved ... an enlightened route map of the progress so far. * Times Educational Supplement *



Book Information
ISBN 9780198279341
Author John Dunn
Format Paperback
Page Count 304
Imprint Oxford University Press
Publisher Oxford University Press
Weight(grams) 469g
Dimensions(mm) 234mm * 156mm * 17mm