Events
Democracy in Ancient Athens: What We Can Learn About How to Change the World
January 12, 2024
Wednesday, January 31, 6-7 pm in the Mary Idema Pew Library Multipurpose Room.
Learn about the practice of democracy in Ancient Athens in this interactive workshop!
This session is part of the university Democracy 101 series, organized by the Associate Director for Student Life for Civic Engagement & Assessment. Faculty from across the university lead workshops and panel discussions on various aspects of democratic theory and practice, with the goal of making our students engaged participants in their democracy. Chuck Pazdernik and David Crane frequently lead a workshop in this series, which poses questions about democratic practice: e.g. is it more democratic to assign government offices by lottery or by election? is it more democratic to draw government districts that break up regional interests or that consolidate them? Students discuss individual questions in small groups, adopt a stance, and try to articulate the democratic values informing their stance (as well as the opposed one). The issues are then discussed collectively, and as a group we look at how Athenian democracy often differs from American democracy in its stance on these issues.