The role of elites vis-a-vis the mass public in the construction and successful functioning of democracy has long been of central interest to political theorists. In Silence and Democracy, John Zumbrunnen explores this theme in Thucydides' famous history of the Peloponnesian War as a way of focusing our thoughts about this relationship in our own modern democracy.
In Periclean Athens, according to Thucydides, "what was in name a democracy became in actuality rule by the first man." This political transformation of Athenian political life raises the question of how to...
The role of elites vis-a-vis the mass public in the construction and successful functioning of democracy has long been of central interest to polit...
Aristophanic Comedy and the Challenge of Democratic Citizenship finds in Aristophanes' comedies a complex comic disposition necessary for meeting the fundamental challenge of ordinary citizenship. That challenge, Zumbrunnen argues, emerges from the tension between two democratic impulses: a rebelliousness that resists all attempts to impose any form of institutionalized rule; and an inclination toward collective action taken through institutions of popular rule. Democracy demands that ordinary citizens negotiate the tension between these often conflicting impulses. Aristophanes' comedies rest...
Aristophanic Comedy and the Challenge of Democratic Citizenship finds in Aristophanes' comedies a complex comic disposition necessary for meeting the ...
