USA

Josiah Ober

2025 Balzan Prize for Classics: Athenian Democracy Revisited

For his groundbreaking research on the origins and functioning of Athenian democracy in classical times, which has had an influence far beyond the academic world. Josiah Ober has identified the factors behind its success using a refreshing, interdisciplinary approach that constantly draws comparisons with the present day, thus bringing these findings into contemporary socio-political debate.

Western-style democracy, however differently it may be realized institutionally in individual countries, has long been regarded, especially since the fall of the Berlin Wall, as the model for a form of government that best enables the development of both the individual and the community. In view of the evident signs of a current crisis in democracies worldwide, there is a growing need to find historical precedents in order to better understand the current social and cultural upheavals and place them in a broader context. The Athenian democracy of the classical period offers a privileged case study: not only did it give today’s democracies their name, but it has also remained a regular point of reference throughout history. Research on democracy in Athens has made enormous strides in recent decades, and few have explored the subject more intensively and innovatively than the American scholar Josiah Ober.

His ancient history dissertation, Fortress Attica: Defense of the Athenian Land Frontier, 404-322 (1985) reveals the intellectual profile of this outstanding scholar, who never stops at an antiquarian inventory, but instead draws on his extensive knowledge of literary and archaeological sources, incorporating ancient and modern theory to create a comprehensive overview that is as bold as it is illuminating. Having already emphasised the importance of Attic orators for understanding the opinions of ordinary Athenian citizens in his academic debut, the rhetorical text corpus of the 4th century BC became a key source for the main thesis of the book that followed, Mass and Elite in Democratic Athens: Rhetoric, Ideology, and the Power of the People (1989). Here, Josiah Ober definitively established himself as an innovative researcher of democracy, drawing on semiotics, discourse and systems theory, and Antonio Gramsci’s concept of hegemony. If the speakers, who generally belonged to the elite, wanted to be successful, they had to – in the popular assembly as well as before the Council of 500 and the juries, which were also democratically selected by drawing lots – engage with the preconceptions of the majority and tie their arguments and self-stylisation to these. In this respect, the public, participatory negotiation of meaningful decisions essentially ensured the long-term balance of interests that is indispensable for democracy and, at the same time, the ‘ideological hegemony of the masses’ as a controlling authority over the elite.

In rapid succession – alongside a wealth of outstanding academic articles – seven monographs on Athenian democracy were published between 1996 and today, all of which have been hailed by the scientific community as groundbreaking and, with their consistently interdisciplinary approach, have had an impact far beyond the field of classical studies. Through his original incorporation of approaches from modern social science, political science, and economic theory – including rational choice and game theory, to which he adds personal experience in the field of consulting – Josiah Ober has impressively succeeded in making Athenian democracy interesting and relevant for modern political science and public political debate. This can also be gleaned from his academic career, which has increasingly anchored him in political science as well as classical studies. For all the optimism that has characterised Josiah Ober’s view of Athenian democracy from the outset, his work is not lacking in references to shortcomings in theinstitutional design that were particularly evident in the radical democracy of the second half of the 5th century BC. Moreover, it almost seems prophetic when, in 2008, he spoke of the danger that elected officials might respond to emerging authoritarian powers with increased centralisation of executive power, fear-mongering rhetoric, and fundamentalism.

Despite the complexity of the subjects dealt with, all of Josiah Ober’s works are delightfully easy to read and are characterised by the fact that his argumentation is always at the cutting edge of contemporary research. He has a full command of the sources, discusses literary and philosophical issues with the same competence as institutional and economic ones (e.g. the average cost of living for an Athenian family), and regularly draws comparisons with modern democratic institutions. As a university Professor, Josiah Ober has also had a formative influence: many prominent younger researchers on Athenian democracy learned their craft from him and are now developing his ideas independently and creatively.