Athenian Democracy: An Experiment for the Ages

Roughly 2,500 years ago, the Athenian people established a radical democracy in which power derived from the votes of ordinary citizens. At a time when local governments ranged from oligarchy to tyranny, the elite classes of Athens gradually ceded power to the inexperienced masses, whose votes served as referendums for everything from taxation to war to welfare. The sequence of events that led to this development is astonishing, and the society that flourished under Athenian democracy is one of the greatest—even if greatly flawed—achievements in world history. As you will learn, Athenian democracy was not an unmitigated success. Unprecedented, flawed, relevant to our time, and captivating in its own right, the story you will experience in these lectures explores what is arguably the boldest political initiative ever taken in history.