Fifteenth Global Studies Conference

Abstract

Modern Western societies face the challenge of political apathy and devaluation of politics. The globalized markets and the positioning of citizens exclusively in their private space seem to undermine the democratic conquests of modernity. The paper discusses to which extend democracy, citizenship, and freedom, as they appear in the Athenian democracy, are becoming relevant for modernity. In Aristotle’s view, western societies would be classified as elective monarchies or oligarchies. The paper proposes an alternative study of the historical process by using the parameter of political freedom as a variant to evaluate the evolution of societies and explores answers to the crisis of politics in the globalized world. A new set of questions derives from the evaluation of the democratic becoming of modernity, such as: “Can we as citizens create laws, norms, and institutions?”, “As a body of citizens, can we make decisions?”, “Are we able as a citizenry to step back and question existing institutions?”, “Can we decide what laws and norms we must institute or change?”, “How much do our modern western societies rely on the citizenry to make decisions about how to serve the common interest best?”. This examination opens new horizons for an interdisciplinary study in the field of Humanities in exploring whether Athenian Democracy is a more advanced historical paradigm of citizenry’s political freedom compared to modernity. Via an interdisciplinary approach that ranges from political science to history, sociology, anthropology, and philosophy, Greek democracy asks to be revisited as a project for progress.