A graphic method for specifying historians’ judgments about political change, with special reference to the distance and the direction that Athenian democracy had moved from the era of Cleisthenes to that of Lycurgus. For Vincent Azoulay and Paulin Ismard (eds.). Cleisthène et Lycurgue d’Athènes: Autour du politique dans la cité classique. Editions du Sorbonne, Paris. © Josiah Ober. jober@stanf...

In book 1 Thucydides’ Corinthians attribute Athenian military success in the Archidamian war to an inherent national character. They empahsize the characteristics of agility, speed, and common-good seeking. Thucydides’ readers come to realize that the Athenian “democratic advantage” stemmed from a superior capacity to organize useful knowledge. Knowledge management in military affairs can be le...

Short of state implosion, what those who wish to promote free markets most need is an unevasive, contemporary, socialist theory. A bird cannot fly without air resistance, and those who oppose planning, egalitarianism, and “democracy” cannot long be sustained by grudging consent, however wide, relieved only by pedantic disputes over the terms of agreement. W. Paul Cockshott and Allin Cottrell in...

A mathematical model of Athenian democracy (594–322 BC) is considered. Indicators of popularity, universality, and goodness are introduced to evaluate single political leaders, the Assembly, the Council of 500, and magistrates. The popularity is a spatial characteristic of representativeness, the average percentage of the population whose opinion is represented on a number of questions. The uni...

Do democracies face more or less political pressures to protect certain industries than nondemocracies? How important are a trading partner’s political institutions in overcoming timeinconsistency problems? While domestic political institutions and distributional conflicts across disparate industries have long been central to theories of international political economy, few empirical studies ex...

Does democracy have a bright future? This brief paper addresses this question and argues, that, thanks to Prometheus, political “animals” can build better-managed corral for their common living which includes better provision of education all “animals.” A historical analysis the long past may be used discern what lies ahead. Democracy requires virtue, or put it in one word, pedagogy. The higher...

Our large theme is failure and success in constitution making, or the limits of constitutional democracy. The convergence of recent scholarly work in political science and law and political events throughout the world make this a timely project inside and outside of the academy. The number of new constitutional texts written in support of regime formation in the past thirty years is astonishing...