The Political Economy Of Classical Athens

In The Political Economy of Classical Athens – a Naval Perspective, Barry O’Halloran offers an account of the economic history of classical Athens in which its strategy of naval conquest provided the foundations for a period of unprecedented economic efflorescence.

In parallel to the development of democracy, the Athenians of the Classical period established a series of sophisticated economic institutions for the time through which they developed a maritime and commercially oriented economy. This book provides a thorough analysis of this transformation and the functioning of the Athenian economy during the Classical period. Through the approach of New Institutional Economics (NIE), the book explores the establishment of key institutions including property rights protection, the legal protection of commercial contracts, prices determined by the forces of supply and demand, institutions against profiteering, banking services, the provision of loans through interest rates, consumer credit, insurance companies and a (primitive) version of joint-stock companies. Furthermore, the book focuses on the structure of the public sector, on how the state budget was determined and on how decisions on public revenues and expenditures were made. It also provides an integrated and detailed analysis of the social welfare policies that were implemented through the provision of a variety of public goods in Classical Athens. Moreover, it focuses on a series of socio-economic aspects such as the social status of women, slaves and foreigners and the viewpoints of prominent Athenian philosophers regarding economic organization. Finally, the book investigates whether an Athenian economic-political model of governance, based on a combination of advanced economic institutions (of free market type logic, even if in a primordial form) and direct democracy principles, can provide any lessons for modern societies. The book will be of great interest to readers of the economy, history and society of Ancient Greece as well as economic historians, ancient historians and policymakers more broadly.

Systematically explores the changing size and structure of the population of classical Athens and the implications for economic history.

This book presents an economic analysis of the causes and consequences of institutional change in ancient Athens. Focusing on the period 800-300 BCE, it looks in particular at the development of political institutions and taxation, including a new look at the activities of individuals like Solon, Kleisthenes and Perikles and on the changes in political rules and taxation after the Peloponnesian War.

The authors of this book argue that post-war fiscal and monetary policies in the U.S. are prone to more frequent and more destabilizing domestic and international financial crises. So, in the aftermath of the one that erupted in 2008, they propose that now we are sleepwalking into another, which under the prevailing institutional circumstances could develop into a worldwide financial Armageddon. Thinking ahead of such a calamity, this book presents for the first time a model of democratic governance with privately produced money based on the case of Athens in Classical times, and explains why, if it is conceived as a benchmark for reference and adaptation, it may provide an effective way out from the dreadful predicament that state managed fiat money holds for the stability of Western-type democracies and the international financial system. As the U.S. today, Athens at that time reached the apex of its military, economic, political, cultural, and scientific influence in the world. But Athens triumphed through different approaches to democracy and fundamentally different fiscal and monetary policies than the U.S. Thus the readers will have the opportunity to learn about these differences and appreciate the potential they offer for confronting the challenges contemporary democracies face under the leadership of the U.S. The book will find audiences among academics, university students, and researchers across a wide range of fields and subfields, as well as legislators, fiscal and monetary policy makers, and economic and financial consultants.

Addressing the dearth of literature that has been written on this key aspect of economic history, Takeshi Amemiya, a well known leading economist based at Stanford University, analyzes the two diametrically opposed views about the exact nature of the ancient Greek economy, putting together a broad and comprehensive survey that is unprecedented in t

This collection represents a better understanding of ancient people's attempts at situating economic life within society. Some of the topics covered include a social and economical analysis of ancient, pre-State Greece, Athens in particular; of the classical Maya; the Maori women and slaves; of rural India; rural Kentucky; and of pre-industrial Japan. Edited by Colin Duncan and David Tandy Volume Three of the Critical Perspectives on Historic Issues series Scholars affected by Polanyi's ideas came together to present talks at international conferences, and from those conferences arose this collection which represents a move toward a better understanding of the ancient people's attempts at situating economic life within particular societies. Some of the topics covered include a social and economical analysis of ancient, pre-State Greece, Athens in particular; of the classical Maya; the Maori women and slaves; of rural India; rural Kentucky; and of preindustrial Japan. Contributors include: Walter Donlan, Ian Morris, John Adams, Vernon Scarborough, William Schaniel. The essays in this volume demonstrate the breadth of Polanyi's influence across many disciplines. Contributors include: Walter Donlan, Ian Morris, John Adams, Vernon Scarborough, William Schaniel. Table of Contents Acknowledgements Notes on Contributors Introduction - Colin A. M. Duncan and David W. Tandy 1 Karl Polanyi's Distinctive Approach to Social Analysis and the Case of Ancient Greece: Ideas, Criticisms, Consequences - David W. Tandy and Walter C. Neale 2 Chief and Followers in Pre-State Greece - Walter Dolan 3 The Community Against the Market in Classical Athens - Ian Morris 4 The Institutional Theory of Trade and the Organization of Intersocial Commerce in Ancient Athens - John Adams 5 Water Management as a Function of Locational and Appropriational Movements and the Case of the Classic Maya of Tikal 6 Hansatsu: Local Currencies in Pre-Industrial japan - Makoto Maruyama 7 potatoes, muskets, and a Changing Community: How the Changing Economic Roles of Women and Slaves Remained Embedded in Maori Society, 1769-1839 8 Exposure and Protection: The Double Movement in the Economic History of Rural India - Walter C. Neale 9 Time and the Economy in a Northeastern kentucky Region - Rhoda Halperin Colin A. M. Duncan is adjunct assistant professor of history at Queen's University in Kingston, where he specializes in the environmental history of British agriculture. David W. Tandy is associate professor of classics at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville; his specialty is early Greece. Volume Three of the Critical Perspectives on Historic Issues series 1995: 186 pages

When does democracy work well, and why? Is democracy the best form of government? These questions are of supreme importance today as the United States seeks to promote its democratic values abroad. Democracy and Knowledge is the first book to look to ancient Athens to explain how and why directly democratic government by the people produces wealth, power, and security. Combining a history of Athens with contemporary theories of collective action and rational choice developed by economists and political scientists, Josiah Ober examines Athenian democracy's unique contribution to the ancient Greek city-state's remarkable success, and demonstrates the valuable lessons Athenian political practices hold for us today. He argues that the key to Athens's success lay in how the city-state managed and organized the aggregation and distribution of knowledge among its citizens. Ober explores the institutional contexts of democratic knowledge management, including the use of social networks for collecting information, publicity for building common knowledge, and open access for lowering transaction costs. He explains why a government's attempt to dam the flow of information makes democracy stumble. Democratic participation and deliberation consume state resources and social energy. Yet as Ober shows, the benefits of a well-designed democracy far outweigh its costs. Understanding how democracy can lead to prosperity and security is among the most pressing political challenges of modern times. Democracy and Knowledge reveals how ancient Greek politics can help us transcend the democratic dilemmas that confront the world today.