Criticism Ancient and Modern. Observations on the Critical Tradition of Athenian Democracy

2008 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 305-329 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dino Piovan
Keyword(s):  
Democratic Theory ◽  
Historical Perspective ◽  
Current Model ◽  
Athenian Democracy ◽  
Modern Times ◽  
Critical Tradition ◽  
Democratic Experience ◽  
Nineteenth And Twentieth Centuries ◽  
Theory Of Democracy ◽  
Point Of Reference

This essay considers the tradition of criticism against Athenian democracy, in both ancient and modern times. Often this critical tradition has been seen to adduce greater interest than the very democratic experience from which it arose; in this it has been aided, in part, by the asserted absence of an ancient theory of democracy. Yet there are significant traces of a democratic theory in the ancient sources, which ought to serve both as a theoretical and ideological riposte to the critics. Some of the modern objections to classical Athenian democracy take up the argument of the ancient critics and display an anti-democratic orientation (German scholarship between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries). Others, however, are motivated by a certain sensibility, grown out of liberalism and the legal state, as well as the emancipation of women and the abolition of slavery. Nevertheless, these objections are sometimes lacking in historical perspective. If we reassess Athenian democracy, it may yet be seen to constitute a useful point of reference, at a time when the current model of democracy finds its legitimacy questioned.2

Women in otorhinolaryngology: a historical perspective

2018 ◽  
Vol 132 (8) ◽  
pp. 670-672 ◽  
Author(s):  
S Konstantinidou ◽  
M Adams
Keyword(s):  
Clinical Practice ◽  
Literature Review ◽  
Historical Perspective ◽  
Google Scholar ◽  
Modern Times ◽  
History Of ◽  
Ancient Times ◽  
Nineteenth And Twentieth Centuries ◽  
Women Pioneers ◽  
The Way

AbstractBackgroundOtorhinolaryngology has an extensive history that spans nearly five millennia, and the history of women as medical and surgical practitioners stretches back to at least 3500 BC.ObjectivesTo explore the history of women in ENT from ancient to modern times, and discover their fascinating role in this field over the years.MethodA literature review was conducted using Google Scholar and PubMed.ResultsIn ancient and medieval times, there were female doctors accomplished in areas pertaining to ENT. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, inspirational women pioneers paved the way for modern female ENT surgeons. This led to a rapid increase in the representation of female otorhinolaryngologists in clinical practice and authorship over the last fifty years.ConclusionThe contribution of women to otorhinolaryngology has evolved since ancient times and the greatest advancement has occurred within the last two hundred years.

Five Lessons from European Democracy

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Matijasevich
Keyword(s):  
Political Community ◽  
Political Transformation ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Democratic Development ◽  
Track Record ◽  
European Democracy ◽  
Democratic Experience ◽  
Theory Of Democracy ◽  
The Eu

Outside of some states still struggling with post-communist transitions, Europe itself may be the first European democracy to collapse in decades. Though never a bastion of participatory democracy and even subject to continuous criticism due to its democratic deficit, the European Union (EU) has provided hope to those who envision a post-national democratic political community. As such, whether the EU survives its present crisis or not, cosmopolitan democrats will look to the EU as a vindication of their ideals. Though perhaps surprising given their track record, this paper will argue that political scientists, especially those concerned with democratization, can also be optimistic about what the EU has brought to the table in terms of how we conceive processes of democratic development. Throughout the paper it will be demonstrated that the creation and maintenance of the European democracy has challenged much of the literature's fundamental assumptions of what makes democracy work. Five key lessons from the European democratic experience will be presented in an attempt to disrupt some of these assumptions including lessons regarding the diversity of the demos, the contingency of democratic upkeep, the challenges of the state, the role of elites in political transformation, and the necessity of exclusion within inclusive spaces. Though a general theory of democracy will not be presented, suggestions will be made as to how we can incorporate some of these lessons into the dominant approaches to democracy found in the literature.   Full text available at: https://doi.org/10.22215/rera.v7i1.214

Narratives of Decadence in Post-Kantian Philosophy

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Huddleston
Keyword(s):  
Martin Heidegger ◽  
Friedrich Nietzsche ◽  
Focus Of Attention ◽  
Max Horkheimer ◽  
Theodor Adorno ◽  
European Philosophy ◽  
Nineteenth And Twentieth Centuries ◽  
Kantian Philosophy ◽  
Point Of Reference

Decadence is a perennial theme in philosophy. But tracing the arc of decline becomes an especially prominent focus of attention in European philosophy in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. This article explains and contrasts several “narratives of decadence” in the post-Kantian tradition. The article first lays out briefly the basics of G. W. F. Hegel’s optimistic view of progress and history as a foil and point of reference, then turns to expounding several narratives of decadence from other canonical philosophical figures in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries—specifically, from Friedrich Nietzsche, from Martin Heidegger, and from Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer. All of these thinkers see modern humanity as being, in some (often quite nuanced) sense, in a decadent state, but all have a rather different diagnosis of what that fallen state consists of, and of how (or whether) we might be able to extricate ourselves from it.

The Conquest in Later Medieval English Law II

2020 ◽  
pp. 247-285
Author(s):  
George Garnett
Keyword(s):  
Historical Perspective ◽  
Forensic Practice ◽  
English Law ◽  
The City ◽  
Point Of Reference

Chapter 7 begins with the resurrection in Edward II’s reign of the London Collection of the Leges Anglorum, which had first been composed in John’s reign. They were commissioned by Andrew Horn, Chamberlain of the city. More recent works were appended to the Collection, including the Mirror of Justices. The role of this rejuvenated Collection in the politics of the reign is examined, with particular reference to the new clauses of the coronation oath devised in 1308. Items in the Collection are linked with the Modus tenendi parliamentum of 1320-1The chapter then pursues the Conquest as a point of reference through records of later medieval forensic practice, particularly as recorded in the Year Books, and the great works of later medieval jurisprudence. Those of Sir John Fortescue are shown to be exceptional, in that he continued to be explicit about viewing English law in a broad historical perspective, which he showed had traversed the Conquest. Thomas Littleton’s Tenures, Anthony Fitzherbert’s Abridgement, and Year Book cases are adduced as evidence of more conventional, less historically attuned attitudes. The chapter concludes with a consideration of two jurisprudential works of the 1530s—St German’s Dialogue between Doctor and Student and Starkey’s Dialogue between Pole and Lupset—and the sudden interest of government propagandists in the London Collection of the Leges Anglorum, as evidenced by compendium of historical precedent known as Collectanea satis copiosa.

Ethics and democracy

2018 ◽  
pp. 156-178
Author(s):  
Mark Bevir ◽  
Jason Blakely
Keyword(s):  
Democratic Theory ◽  
Social Reality ◽  
Political Organization ◽  
Research Projects ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Interpretive Approach ◽  
The Status ◽  
Ethical Critique ◽  
Ethical Significance ◽  
Theory Of Democracy

An anti-naturalist approach overcomes the strict dichotomy between facts and values. Social scientists are free to take up ethically engaged research projects if they are so inclined. This chapter shows how political scientists working within an interpretive, anti-naturalist framework can legitimately take an interest in ethical critique, critical sociologies, and democratic theory. Indeed, anti-naturalist and interpretive philosophy offers social scientists: a better account of the status of values within social reality; an understanding of the ethical significance of the human past; and a critique of technocratic forms of political organization. Interpretive approaches are also linked to a more deliberative theory of democracy. All this implies social scientists have ethical and not just conceptual reasons for adopting an interpretive approach.

Roman and Modern Imperialism: A Reassessment

1990 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 629-659 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gary B. Miles
Keyword(s):  
Modern Times ◽  
Self Interest ◽  
Native Populations ◽  
Nineteenth And Twentieth Centuries ◽  
Nationalist Sentiment ◽  
Roman Antiquity

Those who view Rome from the perspective of modern empires have been struck by Rome's longevity (for example, Brunt 1965:267; Doyle 1986:81–103; Syme 1958:1). Attempts to explain this phenomenon, however, have given little if any consideration to why movements of national independence have occurred in modern times, but not in Roman antiquity. This is the more striking inasmuch as nationalist rebellions against imperial rule typically accompanied the dissolution of direct imperial control over native populations during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Certainly the decisions of modern imperialists to give up their empires have been influenced by political idealism or by calculations of economic self-interest unique to their historical situations (Liithy 1964:34). Nonetheless, the role of their subjects must also be taken into consideration, because it was the initiative of the colonial natives, not that of the imperial masters, that typically has resulted in the first calls for independence and, most often, in the nationalist rebellions that provoked imperialists into dismantling their empires. Idealistic impulses and calculations of economic self-interest alike have taken place within the context of that initiative and cannot help but to have been colored by it. It would be a mistake to identify nationalist sentiment and rebellion as the only reasons for the collapse of modern empires, but they must be included among the decisive reasons.

Anthony Downs, An Economic Theory of Democracy

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Russell Muirhead
Keyword(s):  
Economic Theory ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
Deliberative Democracy ◽  
Democratic Theory ◽  
Median Voter ◽  
Moral Motivation ◽  
Positive Theory ◽  
Median Voter Theorem ◽  
Theory Of Democracy ◽  
Models Of Democracy

Anthony Downs’s Economic Theory of Democracy has been marginalized in normative democratic theory, notwithstanding its prominence in positive political theory. For normative theorists, the “paradox of voting” testifies to the reality of moral motivation in politics, a species of motivation foreign to Downs’s theory and central to the ideals of deliberative democracy that normative theorists developed in the 1980s and 1990s. The deliberative ideal displaced aggregative conceptions of democracy such as Downs’s model. The ensuing segmentation of normative democratic theories that assume moral motives (like deliberative democracy) and positive models of democracy that assume selfish motives (like Downs’s theory) leaves both without the resources to diagnose the persistence of ideological partisanship and polarization that beset modern democracies. Engaging Downs’s theoretical contributions, especially the median voter theorem, would constitute a salutary step toward a democratic theory that integrates normative and positive theory.

Deliberation and Deconstruction: Two Views on the Space of a Post-National Democracy

2001 ◽  
Vol 34 (4) ◽  
pp. 763-790 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Morris
Keyword(s):  
Political Theory ◽  
Natural Law ◽  
Liberal Democracy ◽  
Jacques Derrida ◽  
The Other ◽  
Political Space ◽  
Political Sphere ◽  
Democratic Experience ◽  
Promising Development ◽  
Theory Of Democracy

Theorists of deliberation and deconstruction each claim commitments to a more open and legitimate democracy than existing liberal democracy. Eschewing traditional foundations such as natural law, historical inheritance, or the constitutive formation of the nation, they seek to develop a theory of democracy that is more inclusive in conditions of social diversity and complexity. This article investigates the meaning of the open political space that fosters the democratic experience under such conditions. First, a sociologically informed political theory, such as Jürgen Habermas' powerful if flawed attempt, is required to conceive participation in the democratic political sphere. Drawing on Jacques Derrida and others, the author then argues that deconstructive insights that introduce an openness to the non-identical contribute to a more complete democratic theory, offering a crucial mode of democratic inclusion of the other and an acknowledgment of difference that might assist in reforming current institutions. Thus a blend of Habermasian orientation toward deliberation and deconstruction's ethical sensibilities presents a promising development of democratic possibilities.

The International Conference on Islam and Development in Southeast Asia

1991 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 569-572
Author(s):  
Omar Altalib
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Economic Development ◽  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Historical Perspective ◽  
Political Process ◽  
National Development ◽  
The Political ◽  
Modern Times ◽  
International Conference ◽  
Resource Center

The International Conference on Islam and Development in SoutheastAsia was held during September 25-26, 1991, at the Equatorial Hotel, KualaLumpur, Malaysia. The conference was jointly organized by the Academyof Malay Studies (University of Malaya), the Islamic Academy (Universityof Malaya), and the Information and Resource Center (Singapore) and wassponsored by the Hanns-Seidel Foundation. The conference's stated aim wasto demonstrate the differences in programs for cooperation between Islamiccountries, the integration attempts of developing countries, and the actualeconomic and political situations of Southeast Asian countries.There were four main panels in the program: a) Islam and Developmentin Southeast Asia: A Historical Perspective; b) Islam and the Political Process;c) Islam and Economic Development; and 4) Islam and the Future of theRegion.In the first panel, Khoo Kay Kim (professor of Malaysian history,University of Malaya) pointed out that Muslims have historically emphasizededucation, while in modern times they have tended to allow education tobe shaped by outside rather than inside influences. In addition, Muslimeducation in Southeast Asia has lagged behind national development. Atpresent, the education system in Malaysia continues to produce students who ...

Tyranny in Athens

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cinzia Arruzza
Keyword(s):  
Democratic Theory ◽  
Fourth Century ◽  
Fifth Century ◽  
Greek Literature ◽  
Ongoing Debate ◽  
Democratic Practice ◽  
Democratic Citizen ◽  
Key Features ◽  
Theory Of Democracy

This chapter offers a thorough analysis of both the literary tropes surrounding tyranny and the tyrant in fifth-century Greek literature—with some reference to fourth-century and later texts—and the function they played in democratic self-understanding. The chapter addresses the ongoing debate about the existence of a democratic theory of democracy in fifth- and fourth-century Athens, arguing that a proper democratic theory did not exist. Within the context of this debate, the chapter draws on theses of Diego Lanza, Giovanni Giorgini, and James F. McGlew that the depictions of tyranny in anti-tyrannical literature served the purpose of offering to the democratic citizen an inverted mirror with which he could contemplate the key features of democratic practice, by way of opposition. In other words, hatred for a highly stylized discursive representation of tyranny played a key role in democratic self-understanding.

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