Democracy: Ancient Models, Modern Challenges

Part of: The Political Imagination: Ancient Greek Ideas

Demokratia is the power (kratos) of the people (demos). But what kind of power, and who constitutes the people? Although ancient democracy is often stylized as “direct democracy” and so positioned as very different from modern “representative democracy,” in fact, issues of accountability are central to both.

Melissa Lane is a Professor of Politics at Princeton University.  Previously she was Senior University Lecturer at Cambridge University in the Faculty of History and Fellow of King’s College, Cambridge.  She studied for her first degree in Social Studies at Harvard University, and then took an MPhil and PhD in Philosophy at the University of Cambridge.  She is an author, lecturer and broadcaster who has received major awards including a Guggenheim Fellowship and Lucy Shoe Meritt Residency in Classical Studies at the American Academy of Rome. She has published widely in journals and authored or introduced nine major books including Greek and Roman Political Ideas; Eco-Republic; and Of Rule and Office: Plato’s Ideas of the Political.

This FREE event is run by Gresham College in London.  You must regsiter at: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/whats-on/democracy-ancient