Ancient Greek elite theorists and ordinary democratic practitioners shared a distinctive account of the institutional features of democracy: democracy requires both institutions that empower ordinary citizens to decide matters and the widespread diffusion of agenda-setting powers. In the Politics, Aristotle makes agenda control central to his understanding of what it is to be kurios in the city, to his distinction between oligarchy and democracy, and to his analysis of the preconditions for democratic control of the polis. For democratic citizens, isēgoria (the equal right to speak and make proposals in the assembly) was more than an expression of the democratic commitment to equality. It was also an institutional tool to resist oligarchic domination of the agenda. Institutionalizing isēgoria was part of the Athenian response to a crucial problem for democratic theory and practice: how to ensure that popular participation reliably translates into popular control.
BachrachPBaratzM (1962)
Two faces of power. APSR56(4): 947–952.
5.
CammackD (2019)
The demos in demokratia. Classical Quarterly69(1): 42–61.
6.
CammackD (2020)
Deliberation in ancient Greek assemblies. Classical Philology115: 486–522.
7.
CanevaroMEsuA (2018) Extreme democracy and mixed constitution in theory and practice. In: C Bearzot, M Canevaro, T Gargiulo and E Poddighe (eds) Athenaion Politeiai tra storia, politica e sociologia. Milan: LED, pp. 105--145.
8.
CartledgeP (2001) Spartan Reflections.
Berkeley, CA:
University of California Press.
9.
DahlR (1956) A Preface to Democratic Theory.
Chicago, IL:
University of Chicago Press.
10.
DahlR (2005[1961]) Who Governs? Democracy and Power in an American City.
New Haven, CT:
Yale University Press.
11.
Demosthenes (1930) Orations I. Trans. JH Vince. Loeb edition. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
12.
Demosthenes (1935) Orations III. Trans. JH Vince. Loeb edition. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
13.
Demosthenes (1939) Orations VI. Trans. AT Murray. Loeb edition. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
14.
Demosthenes (1949) Orations VII. Trans. NW De Witt. Loeb edition. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
15.
Demosthenes (2005) Speeches 18 and 19. Trans. H Yunis. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press.
16.
EsuA (2017)
Divided power and eunomia: Deliberative procedures in ancient Sparta. Classical Quarterly67(2): 353–373.
17.
Euripides (1998) Suppliant Women, Electra, Heracles. Trans. Kovacs D. Loeb edition. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
18.
GoodinR (2008) Innovating Democracy: Democratic Theory and Practice after the Deliberative Turn.
New York:
Oxford University Press.
19.
HammerD (2005)
Plebiscitary politics in archaic Greece. Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte54(2) 107–131.
20.
HansenMH (1981)
Initiative and decision: The separation of powers in fourth-century Athens. GRBS22(4): 345–370.
21.
HansenMH (1989) On the importance of institutions in an analysis of Athenian democracy. Classica et Mediaevalia40: 108–113.
22.
HansenMH (1999) The Athenian Democracy in the Age of Demosthenes.
Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press.
23.
Herodotus (1922) Histories III. Trans. AD Godley. Loeb edition. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
24.
HodkinsonS (2005) The imaginary Spartan politeia. In: Hansen MH (ed.) The Imaginary Polis. Copenhagen: Copenhagen Polis Center, pp. 222--281.
25.
HumeD (1986) Essays: Moral, Political, and Literary.
Indianapolis, IN:
Liberty Fund.
26.
LambertS (2017) Inscribed Athenian Laws and Decrees in the Age of Demosthenes.
Leiden:
Brill.
27.
LandauerM (2019) Dangerous Counsel.
Chicago, IL:
University of Chicago Press.
28.
LandemoreH (2020) Open Democracy: Reinventing Popular Rule for the Twenty-First Century.
Princeton, NJ:
Princeton University Press.
29.
LaneM (2016) Popular sovereignty as control of office holders: Aristotle on Greek democracy. In: Bourke and Skinner (eds) Popular Sovereignty in Historical Perspective. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 52--72.
30.
LukesS (2005 [1974]) Power: A Radical View.
New York:
Palgrave Macmillan.
McCormick J (2011) Machiavellian Democracy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
33.
MillerF (1995) Nature, Justice, and Rights in Aristotle’s Politics.
New York:
Oxford University Press.
34.
MoeT (2005)
Power and political institutions. Perspectives on Politics3(2): 215–233.
35.
OberJ (1996) The Athenian Revolution.
Princeton, NJ:
Princeton University Press.
36.
OberJ (2008a)
The original meaning of ‘democracy’: Capacity to do things, not majority rule. Constellations15(1): 3–9.
37.
OberJ (2008b) Democracy and Knowledge.
Princeton, NJ:
Princeton University Press.
38.
Old Oligarch [pseudo-Xenophon] (1925) Constitution of the Athenians. In: Marchant EC and Bowersock GW Xenophon: Scripta Minora. Loeb Edition. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
39.
PasquinoP (2010) Democracy ancient and modern: Divided power. In: Hansen MH (ed.) Démocratie athénienne – Démocratie moderne: Tradition et influences. Geneva: Fondation Hardt, pp. 1--50.
40.
PiersonP (2016) Power in historical institutionalism. In: O Fioretos, T Falleti and A Sheingate (eds) The Oxford Handbook of Historical Institutionalism. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 124--141.
41.
Plato (1997) Complete Works. Edited by JM Cooper. Indianapolis, IN: Hackett Publishing Company.
42.
RaaflaubK (2004a) The Discovery of Freedom in Ancient Greece.
Chicago, IL:
University of Chicago Press.
43.
RaaflaubK (2004b) Aristocracy and freedom of speech in the Greco-Roman world. In: Sluiter I and Rosen R (eds) Free Speech in Classical Antiquity. Leiden: Brill, pp. 41--62.
44.
RhodesPJ (1972) The Athenian boule.
Oxford:
Oxford University Press.
45.
RhodesPJ (2016)
Demagogues and demos in Athens. Polis33: 243–264.
46.
RhodesPJ (2017) The Athenian Constitution: Written in the school of Aristotle.
Liverpool:
Aris and Phillips.
47.
RikerW (1982) Liberalism against Populism: A Confrontation between the Theory of Democracy and the Theory of Social Choice.
Long Grove, IL:
Waveland Press.
48.
RobinsonE (2011) Democracy Beyond Athens.
Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
49.
RubinsteinL (2004)
Volunteer prosecutors in the Greek world. Dike6: 87–113.
50.
SaxonhouseA (2006) Free Speech and Democracy in Ancient Athens.
New York:
Cambridge University Press.
51.
SchofieldM (1999) Saving the City.
New York: Routledge.
52.
SchütrumpfE (1994) Aristotle on Sparta. In: Powell and Hodkinson (eds) The Shadow of Sparta. London: Routledge, pp. 323--346.
53.
SchwartzbergM (2014) Counting the Many: The Origins and Limits of Supermajority Rule.
New York:
Cambridge University Press.
54.
SimontonM (2017) Classical Greek Oligarchy: A Political History.
Princeton, NJ:
Princeton University Press.
55.
Thucydides (2013) The War Between the Peloponnesians and the Athenians. Trans. J Mynott. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
