Ancient Studies Week
Demopolis: Democracy, Legitimacy, and Civic Education
Location
Library and Gallery, Albin O. Kuhn : Library Gallery
Date & Time
October 12, 2016, 4:00 pm – 5:30 pm
Description
Josiah Ober, Constantine Mitsotakis Professor in the School of Humanities and Sciences, Professor of Political Science, and Professor of Classics, Stanford University
The ancient Greek definition of democracy was “collective self-government by citizens.” Is that still valid today? To answer that question, imagine a socially diverse population, inhabiting a defined territory; call it Demopolis. Demopolis contains rich and poor, liberals, and religious believers of various faiths. Its residents disagree on many things. But they agree that they want a state that is secure, prosperous, and not ruled by an autocrat. The founders of Demopolis can create democratic rules for their state, but they must persuade future generations that it is worth paying the costs of maintaining the rules. The rules must enable the founder-citizens and their descendants to enforce and, when necessary, to change, those self-same rules. The citizens must, therefore, be willing and able to act as a collective agent. Once the rules are in place, citizens must have good reason to obey them. And because each citizen must participate as a civically- engaged member of the community, costs in time and effort are high. Demopolis’s legitimacy demands that its citizens actively support the constitutional order. The goal of democracy, ancient or modern, is achieved only through civic education – a persuasive and rationally defensible argument for the value of self-government.
Bio: Josiah Ober is the author of Mass and Elite in Democratic Athens, Democracy and Knowledge, The Rise and Fall of Classical Greece, and other books. His work focuses on the history and practice of self-governing organizations (ancient and modern), on the circulation of knowledge in democratic societies, and on the interplay between political philosophy and culture. Ober holds the Constantine Mitsotakis Professorship in the School of Humanities and Sciences at Stanford University, where he divides his time between the Departments of Classics and Political Science. He previously taught at Princeton and at Montana State University.
Sponsored by the Ancient Studies Department, the Dresher Center for the Humanities, the Philosophy Department, and the Political Science Department.
