ABSTRACT
This chapter dismantles the assumption that modern democracy is a direct institutional descendant of ancient Athenian democracy. While acknowledging Athens as the most sophisticated historical example of political self-government, the chapter demonstrates that its political institutions bear little resemblance to modern representative systems. Ancient democracy relied on direct participation, lottery-based officeholding, and highly restricted citizenship—features fundamentally incompatible with contemporary representative democracy. Drawing on historical scholarship, the chapter demonstrates that there is no institutional continuity between Athens and the democratic regimes that emerged after the American and French revolutions. The chapter also situates Athenian democracy within a broader global context, documenting early forms of political consent and collective decision-making in medieval Europe, precolonial Africa, and indigenous societies in the Americas. By challenging the idea of a single Greek origin story, the chapter undermines claims that democracy depends on a classical Western heritage. The argument has clear contemporary implications: political self-government is not the product of one unique civilisational lineage, but a form of rule that has emerged independently in diverse historical settings.
