Summary
Title: First Democracy: The Challenge Of An Ancient Idea
Author: Paul Woodruff
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0195177185
Pro:
• Well written and engaging account of ancient Greek history, politics, and philosophy
• Explains how democracy can and should work — that democracy is a dream worth pursuing
• Argues that we can learn a lot from Athenian democracy if we take the time to try
Con:
• None
Description:
• Analysis of the victories and failures of the first democracy in Athens
• Argues that Athenian democracy, while flawed, was better than most realize
• Examines 7 basic elements necessary to any democratic system
Book Review
Democracy may be one of the most radical political concepts in the history of humanity — and it continues to be radical even today in part because it hasn’t been fully, successfully realized. In many ways, ancient Athenian democracy fell far short of its own principles of democracy, but in other ways it was ahead of the democratic systems we have today. By understanding both the failings and successes of that First Democracy, we may be able to improve our own democratic experiment for the benefit of all.
This is the basic goal of Paul Woodruff’s book First Democracy: The Challenge Of An Ancient Idea. Woodruff previously wrote the short but excellent book Reverence, one of the best books I’ve ever reviewed here, and he does just as well with First Democracy, a relatively short work that is easy to read, accessible to the average person, but also filled with fascinating information and challenging ideas. Woodruff makes you think, question, and take a step back from common assumptions in a manner that is really enjoyable to read.
Democracy is such an amorphous concept that it’s difficult to define or explain — everyone seems to have their own idea about what it means. Woodruff offers seven characteristics necessary for a strong democratic system: education, reasoning without knowledge, citizen wisdom, natural equality, rule of law, harmony, and freedom from tyranny. Each is given its own chapter so Woodruff can explain how and why a democratic system necessarily tries to express and foster these ideas.
Woodruff focuses on how these ideas were expressed — successfully and unsuccessfully — by the “First Democracy” in ancient Athens. He argues that the Athenians appreciated democracy because they had immediate experiences with undemocratic systems and that’s why they developed the original democratic experiment. They even lost their democracy for a time and had to re-establish it. All this helped them cultivate a clear vision about what democracy meant, what it should do, and how it should work.
First Democracy: The Challenge Of An Ancient Idea
This, Woodruff believes, is absent in democratic societies today. People lack a shared vision about what democracy should mean to them and what sorts of values democratic systems should encourage. There is a lack of “harmony,” one of Woodruff’s seven attributes which may seem out of place initially but which he argues may be more fundamental than the rest. Without political and social harmony between groups of people who disagree, democratic governance cannot work over the long term.
Woodruff writes about the case of Socrates:
- “Democracy depends upon listening to opposing views, but in time of crisis, people forget this. If you speak out against a popular measure, you may be branded as an enemy of the people. But that is not democracy at work; it is the majority of the moment acting the part of a tyrant, having its way by the use of fear and intimidation.”
Without harmony, democracy will devolve into a tyranny of some sort as one group, no longer willing to work with the others, asserts its power and excludes the others from being represented. They take control in order to govern society for themselves according to the values they hold, dismissing input from everyone else.
