Commissioned Book Review: Jeff Miller, Democracy in Crisis: Lessons from Ancient Athens
| Author | Evangelia Sembou |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/14789299221108573 |
| Published date | 01 February 2023 |
| Date | 01 February 2023 |
| Subject Matter | Commissioned Book Review |
Political Studies Review
2023, Vol. 21(1) NP21 –NP22
journals.sagepub.com/home/psrev
Commissioned Book Review
1108573PSW0010.1177/14789299221108573Political Studies ReviewCommissioned Book Review
book-review2022
Commissioned Book Review
Democracy in Crisis: Lessons from
Ancient Athens by Jeff Miller. Exeter:
Imprint Academic, 2022. 240 pp., £25/$50
(cloth), ISBN 9781788360630
In this book, Jeff Miller argues that ‘Liberal
democracy in the twenty-first century is
under threat’ (p. 9). The book examines
several political institutions from Athenian
democracy and considers how we might
incorporate some lessons from ancient
Athens. Miller emphasizes that his purpose
is not to suggest that we can directly trans-
plant the practices and institutions of dem-
ocratic Athens to states today. Rather, he
argues that an exploration of Athenian
practices and institutions may help us
rethink what is possible; take us away
from a view of democracy centering on
voting towards a view of citizens’ engage-
ment and true power; help us reassess our
political assumptions and procedures. As
he says, ‘We may not be Athenians, but we
can begin to think and act more like them’
(p. 19), for ‘Athens has much to teach us
about democracy’ (p. 21).
In Chapter one, Miller outlines the
major theoretical or ideological differences
between democratic Athens and contem-
porary liberal democracies. According
to liberalism, the self is conceptually prior
to society; as a result, human beings are
regarded as separate from one another. This
conception of the self makes the develop-
ment of a robust community impossible.
Moreover, the liberal state is neutral
between different conceptions of the good
life. By contrast, for ancient Athenians, the
self was already from birth situated within
the polis. Therefore, the self could only
reach its fulfilment within the polis. In the
Athenian worldview, the individual was
connected to society and to others. For the
Athenians, the laws, city and demos shaped
the individual. Athenian politicians linked
democracy to individual excellence, and
democrats believed that the type of the
regime shaped the moral character of the
citizens. Thus, ancient Athenians distin-
guished between citizens in a democracy
and subjects in a despotism.
In the remaining four chapters Miller
examines specific Athenian institutions and
practices. Chapter two focuses on ostra-
cism, the banishment of a citizen from the
city for a decade. Chapter three discusses
sortition, viz. the use of lottery or chance to
fill political offices. Chapter four concen-
trates on public finances; Athens taxed
its wealth iest members (‘liturgies’ and
‘eisphora’) to finance the democracy.
Finally, Chapter five looks at the cultural
practices – most famously, the City Dionysia
– that bolstered Athenian democracy.
The author considers how the above
Athenian institutions and practices can
suggest ways to improve our experience of
democracy today. For example, although
Miller argues that we cannot adopt ostra-
cism today in the same way, there are ways
to curb the influence of money on politics
(p. 79) – the reduction of accumulated
wealth through taxation (p. 81) and the
increase of estate or inheritance tax (p. 83).
But, perhaps, the best example of a modern
form of ostracism he mentions is the clo-
sure of Donald Trump’s account by Twitter
following the storming of the US Capitol
on 6 January 2021 (pp. 57 and 175).
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