Ancient Athenian Democracy: Forms and Quasiforms
Abstract
The paper analyses the essence of ancient Athenian state system of the classical period, usually qualified as a perfect form of democracy. To attain this objective the author studies historical prerequisites of Athenian state system of the classical period. The author comes to the conclusion that political forms of aristocratic democracy that preceded “the age of Pericles” are the closest to proper democracy, whereas the state system of the classical period, that made an end to aristocratic nature of democracy, degenerated into quasidemocratic forms – oligarchy and ochlocracy, that predetermined Athens’ loss (and at the same time – loss by other Greek polises) of political sovereignty.
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