Athenian democracy and popular tyranny

Abstract

IAn account of popular sovereignty that begins with the fifth century BCE may seem to be off to a false start. 1 Foundational works in the history of political thought have taught us that the very notion of sovereignty, and thus of popular sovereignty, emerged from the particular historical circumstances of the early modern era.One might thus believe that fifth-century Greeks could not be discussing popular sovereignty some two thousand years before this concept's emergence.2 Leading ancient historians and classicists have adopted this view, deeming 'sovereignty' a misleadingly anachronistic way of thinking about Athenian democracy in the classical period.3 For the concept of sovereignty seems 1 By agreement, my primary focus is on the fifth century BCE (esp.its second half) and Melissa Lane's in her contribution is on the fourth.Earlier versions of this chapter were presented at Queen Mary, University of London (Popular Sovereignty Project); Stanford University (Workshop on Ethics and Politics, Ancient and Modern); and UCLA (a combined meeting of the Legal Theory Workshop and the Political Theory Workshop).I am grateful to the audiences on each of these occasions, and for comments from Mark

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