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Kleisthenes and the Ascent of Democracy
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First Draft (Incomplete)
Prepared for the APSA Meetings
at Philadelphia, August 2003
Kleisthenes and the Ascent of Democracy
Krishna K. Ladha
## email not listed ##
Department of Politics, New York University, New York, NY 10003
Cleisthenes … [established] laws and a constitution that was admirably balanced so as to promote harmony between the citizens and security for the whole state.
Plutarh (1960, p. 167)
Introduction
Kleisthenes installed democracy in Athens in 507 BCE. Herodotus catalogues Kleisthenes’s reforms in The Histories, and so does Aristotle in The Athenian Constitution and in Politics. Often flawed, these are the only original sources about Kleisthenes. Historians are content describing Kleisthenes’s actions interspersed with analytical comments. While some historians recognize the greatness of Kleisthenes’s work, many also view it as an enterprise in self-interest that simply extends Solon’s refroms of 594 (henceforth, BCE is suppressed). Plutarch, while uncannily accurate in the quote above, probably did not write a biography of Kleisthenes. Ultimately Kleisthenes received little recognition as a thinker, pioneer and a political entrepreneur outside of classical historians. A search of jstor reveals that the most recent article in American Political Science Review containing the expression “Kleisthenes or Cleisthenes” in the text was published more than seventy five years ago in 1926; actually it is in footnote 8. American Journal of Political Science drew a blank, as did the economics journals of jstor. Philosophy journals of jstor do contain a handful of articles containing the name Kleisthenes, but nothing significant about Kleisthenes.
PS: Political Science and Quarterly (1993) celebrated 2500th anniversary of democracy with contributions from historians. Bernard Grofman, a reputed political scientist, wrote the Editor’s introduction. Grofman asks: “If Cleisthenes is so important, why have I never heard of him?” He adds: “Despite its relatively extensive discussion of Athenian Democracy, Cleisthenes goes unmentioned in Dahl (1989).
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His name is equally
conspicuous by its absence in virtually everything else ever written about democracy by political scientists.” Moreover, Grofman asks: “why should I celebrate Athenian
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To be fair, Dahl does mention Cleisthenes on page 14 although not in the Index. I must
reluctantly submit, however, that I have difficulty relating with Dahl’s desciption of Athenian democracy. Dahl (1989, 18) lists six requirements that must be met for a democratic order in the Greek view. I find the first five requirements as controversial if not inaccurate.
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1
First Draft (Incomplete)
Prepared for the APSA Meetings
at Philadelphia, August 2003
Kleisthenes and the Ascent of Democracy
Krishna K. Ladha
## email not listed ##
Department of Politics, New York University, New York, NY 10003
Cleisthenes … [established] laws and a constitution that was admirably
balanced so as to promote harmony between the citizens and security for
the whole state.
Plutarh (1960, p. 167)
Introduction
Kleisthenes installed democracy in Athens in 507 BCE. Herodotus catalogues
Kleisthenes’s reforms in The Histories, and so does Aristotle in The Athenian
Constitution and in Politics. Often flawed, these are the only original sources about
Kleisthenes. Historians are content describing Kleisthenes’s actions interspersed with
analytical comments. While some historians recognize the greatness of Kleisthenes’s
work, many also view it as an enterprise in self-interest that simply extends Solon’s
refroms of 594 (henceforth, BCE is suppressed). Plutarch, while uncannily accurate in
the quote above, probably did not write a biography of Kleisthenes. Ultimately
Kleisthenes received little recognition as a thinker, pioneer and a political entrepreneur
outside of classical historians. A search of jstor reveals that the most recent article in
American Political Science Review containing the expression “Kleisthenes or
Cleisthenes” in the text was published more than seventy five years ago in 1926; actually
it is in footnote 8. American Journal of Political Science drew a blank, as did the
economics journals of jstor. Philosophy journals of jstor do contain a handful of articles
containing the name Kleisthenes, but nothing significant about Kleisthenes.
PS: Political Science and Quarterly (1993) celebrated 2500th anniversary of democracy
with contributions from historians. Bernard Grofman, a reputed political scientist, wrote
the Editor’s introduction. Grofman asks: “If Cleisthenes is so important, why have I
never heard of him?” He adds: “Despite its relatively extensive discussion of Athenian
Democracy, Cleisthenes goes unmentioned in Dahl (1989).
1
His name is equally
conspicuous by its absence in virtually everything else ever written about democracy by
political scientists.” Moreover, Grofman asks: “why should I celebrate Athenian
1
To be fair, Dahl does mention Cleisthenes on page 14 although not in the Index. I must
reluctantly submit, however, that I have difficulty relating with Dahl’s desciption of Athenian
democracy. Dahl (1989, 18) lists six requirements that must be met for a democratic order in the
Greek view. I find the first five requirements as controversial if not inaccurate.
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