The Greek Polis and the Invention of Democracy: A Politico-Cultural Transformation and Its Interpretations

The Greek Polis and the Invention of Democracy presents aseries of essays that trace the Greeks' path to democracy andexamine the connection between the Greek polis as a citizenstate and democracy as well as the interaction between democracyand various forms of cultural expression from a comparativehistorical perspective and with special attention to the place ofGreek democracy in political thought and debates about democracythroughout the centuries.

• Presents an original combination of a close synchronic and longdiachronic examination of the Greek polis - city-states thatgave rise to the first democratic system of government
• Offers a detailed study of the close interactionbetweendemocracy, society, and the arts in ancient Greece
• Places the invention of democracy in fifth-century bce Athensboth in its broad social and cultural context and in the context ofthe re-emergence of democracy in the modern world
• Reveals the role Greek democracy played in the political andintellectual traditions that shaped modern democracy, and in thedebates about democracy in modern social, political, andphilosophical thought
• Written collaboratively by an international team of leadingscholars in classics, ancient history, sociology, and politicalscience