War, disenfranchisement and the fall of the ancient Athenian democracy

TY - JOUR

T1 - War, disenfranchisement and the fall of the ancient Athenian democracy

AU - Tridimas, George

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PY - 2015

Y1 - 2015

N2 - The ancient Athenian democracy emerged in 508 (all dates BCE), became a dominant naval power, fought a multitude of external wars and ended in 322 after it was defeated by Macedon and was replaced by oligarchy. The paper employs a political economy framework to examine the demise of democracy. It illustrates that war was a means of redistribution, benefiting the majority of poorer Athenians at the expense of the rich elite, who bore a disproportionate burden of its cost. A model of conflict is set up to study the incentives of the poor majority to go to war. Analyzing a dynamic setting it also investigates the circumstances when after defeating Athens her enemy chooses to impose oligarchy that disenfranchises the poor. As victory at war is probabilistic it is concluded that the fall of the democracy was neither avoidable nor inevitable.

AB - The ancient Athenian democracy emerged in 508 (all dates BCE), became a dominant naval power, fought a multitude of external wars and ended in 322 after it was defeated by Macedon and was replaced by oligarchy. The paper employs a political economy framework to examine the demise of democracy. It illustrates that war was a means of redistribution, benefiting the majority of poorer Athenians at the expense of the rich elite, who bore a disproportionate burden of its cost. A model of conflict is set up to study the incentives of the poor majority to go to war. Analyzing a dynamic setting it also investigates the circumstances when after defeating Athens her enemy chooses to impose oligarchy that disenfranchises the poor. As victory at war is probabilistic it is concluded that the fall of the democracy was neither avoidable nor inevitable.

KW - Democracy

KW - Ancient Athens

KW - redistribution

KW - conflict

KW - disenfranchisement

U2 - 10.1016/j.ejpoleco.2015.01.002

DO - 10.1016/j.ejpoleco.2015.01.002

M3 - Article

VL - 31

JO - European Journal of Political Economy

T2 - European Journal of Political Economy

JF - European Journal of Political Economy

SN - 0176-2680

ER -