IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/pubcho/v181y2019i1d10.1007_s11127-018-00632-w.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Is development uniquely modern? Ancient Athens on the doorstep

Author

Listed:
  • Federica Carugati

    (Stanford University)

  • Josiah Ober

    (Stanford University)

  • Barry R. Weingast

    (Stanford University)

Abstract

By offering out-of-sample observations, pre-modern case studies can provide unique insights into the process of economic development. We focus on the case of ancient Athens in the 5th and 4th centuries BCE. During that time, Athens moved beyond the logic of rent-seeking and rent-creation that grips natural states, displaying many features of development present in the modern world. Athenian development rested on a set of institutions different from those prevalent in the modern world: in particular, Athens lacked liberal democratic institutions and strong central governments with high state capacity. The findings yield a twofold conclusion: first, modern theories centered on the recent experience of contemporary nation-states impose too narrow a frame on the phenomenon of development. Second, by analyzing in depth one case study, we reconstruct a different path toward development.

Suggested Citation

  • Federica Carugati & Josiah Ober & Barry R. Weingast, 2019. "Is development uniquely modern? Ancient Athens on the doorstep," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 181(1), pages 29-47, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:pubcho:v:181:y:2019:i:1:d:10.1007_s11127-018-00632-w
    DOI: 10.1007/s11127-018-00632-w
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11127-018-00632-w
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11127-018-00632-w?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Daron Acemoglu & Simon Johnson & James Robinson, 2005. "The Rise of Europe: Atlantic Trade, Institutional Change, and Economic Growth," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 95(3), pages 546-579, June.
    2. Nunn, Nathan, 2007. "Historical legacies: A model linking Africa's past to its current underdevelopment," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(1), pages 157-175, May.
    3. Robert J. Barro, 1998. "Determinants of Economic Growth: A Cross-Country Empirical Study," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262522543, April.
    4. Fleck Robert K. & Hanssen F. Andrew, 2012. "On the Benefits and Costs of Legal Expertise: Adjudication in Ancient Athens," Review of Law & Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 8(2), pages 367-399, October.
    5. George Halkos & Nickolas Kyriazis, 2010. "The Athenian economy in the age of Demosthenes: path dependence and change," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 29(3), pages 255-277, June.
    6. McCannon, Bryan C., 2010. "Homicide trials in Classical Athens," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(1), pages 46-51, March.
    7. Bergh, Andreas & Lyttkens, Carl Hampus, 2014. "Measuring institutional quality in ancient Athens," Journal of Institutional Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 10(2), pages 279-310, June.
    8. George Tridimas, 2016. "Conflict, democracy and voter choice: a public choice analysis of the Athenian ostracism," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 169(1), pages 137-159, October.
    9. Greif,Avner, 2006. "Institutions and the Path to the Modern Economy," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521480444, September.
    10. Bryan C. McCannon, 2011. "Jury Size in Classical Athens: an Application of the Condorcet Jury Theorem," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 64(1), pages 106-121, February.
    11. Fleck, Robert K & Hanssen, F Andrew, 2006. "The Origins of Democracy: A Model with Application to Ancient Greece," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 49(1), pages 115-146, April.
    12. David Stasavage, 2002. "Credible Commitment in Early Modern Europe: North and Weingast Revisited," The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 18(1), pages 155-186, April.
    13. North,Douglass C. & Wallis,John Joseph & Weingast,Barry R., 2013. "Violence and Social Orders," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781107646995.
    14. Robert K. Fleck & F. Andrew Hanssen, 2013. "How Tyranny Paved the Way to Democracy: The Democratic Transition in Ancient Greece," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 56(2), pages 389-416.
    15. Nicholas KYRIAZIS & Emmanouil ECONOMOU, 2013. "Social Contract, Public Choice And Fiscal Repercussions In The Athenian Democracy," Theoretical and Practical Research in the Economic Fields, ASERS Publishing, vol. 4(1), pages 61-76.
    16. George Tridimas, 2012. "Constitutional choice in ancient Athens: the rationality of selection to office by lot," Constitutional Political Economy, Springer, vol. 23(1), pages 1-21, March.
    17. McCannon Bryan C., 2012. "The Origin of Democracy in Athens," Review of Law & Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 8(2), pages 531-562, October.
    18. Ian Morris, 2004. "Economic Growth in Ancient Greece," Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics (JITE), Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 160(4), pages 709-742, December.
    19. Bryan C. McCannon, 2017. "Who pays taxes? Liturgies and the Antidosis procedure in Ancient Athens," Constitutional Political Economy, Springer, vol. 28(4), pages 407-421, December.
    20. Daron Acemoğlu & James A. Robinson, 2016. "Paths to Inclusive Political Institutions," Studies in Economic History, in: Jari Eloranta & Eric Golson & Andrei Markevich & Nikolaus Wolf (ed.), Economic History of Warfare and State Formation, pages 3-50, Springer.
    21. Alain Bresson, 2016. "The Making of the Ancient Greek Economy: Institutions, Markets, and Growth in the City-States," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, number 10376.
    22. George Tridimas, 2017. "Constitutional choice in ancient Athens: the evolution of the frequency of decision making," Constitutional Political Economy, Springer, vol. 28(3), pages 209-230, September.
    23. Ober, Josiah, 2012. "Democracy's Dignity," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 106(4), pages 827-846, November.
    24. Tridimas, George, 2015. "War, disenfranchisement and the fall of the ancient Athenian democracy," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 102-117.
    25. Jari Eloranta & Eric Golson & Andrei Markevich & Nikolaus Wolf (ed.), 2016. "Economic History of Warfare and State Formation," Studies in Economic History, Springer, number 978-981-10-1605-9, June.
    26. McCannon, Bryan C., 2010. "The median juror and the trial of Socrates," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 26(4), pages 533-540, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. George Tridimas, 2020. "Modelling the Quest for Status in Ancient Greece: Paying for Liturgies," Homo Oeconomicus: Journal of Behavioral and Institutional Economics, Springer, vol. 37(3), pages 213-236, December.
    2. Emmanouil M. L. Economou & Nikolaos A. Kyriazis & Nicholas C. Kyriazis, 2021. "Managing Financial Risks while Performing International Commercial Transactions. Intertemporal Lessons from Athens in Classical Times," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 14(11), pages 1-14, October.
    3. Harris,Colin & Cai,Meina & Murtazashvili,Ilia & Murtazashvili,Jennifer Brick, 2020. "The Origins and Consequences of Property Rights," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781108969055, September.
    4. Hartley, Tilman & Kallis, Giorgos, 2021. "Interest-bearing loans and unpayable debts in slow-growing economies: Insights from ten historical cases," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 188(C).
    5. Matthew D. Mitchell, 2019. "Rent seeking at 52: an introduction to a special issue of public choice," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 181(1), pages 1-4, October.
    6. Mario Menegatti, 2021. "Risk aversion in two-period rent-seeking games," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 188(1), pages 269-287, July.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Bryan C. McCannon, 2018. "Arbitration in classical Athens," Constitutional Political Economy, Springer, vol. 29(4), pages 413-423, December.
    2. Bryan C. McCannon, 2017. "Who pays taxes? Liturgies and the Antidosis procedure in Ancient Athens," Constitutional Political Economy, Springer, vol. 28(4), pages 407-421, December.
    3. Johnson, Noel D. & Koyama, Mark, 2017. "States and economic growth: Capacity and constraints," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 1-20.
    4. Tridimas, George, 2015. "War, disenfranchisement and the fall of the ancient Athenian democracy," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 102-117.
    5. Robert K. Fleck & F. Andrew Hanssen, 2018. "Path dependence and transitions from tyranny to democracy: evidence from ancient Greece," Constitutional Political Economy, Springer, vol. 29(4), pages 371-388, December.
    6. Lyttkens, Carl Hampus & Gerding, Henrik, 2015. "Understanding the Politics of Perikles Around 450 BC. The Benefits of an Economic Perspective," Working Papers 2015:13, Lund University, Department of Economics.
    7. Economou, Emmanouel/Marios/Lazaros & Kyriazis, Nicholas & Zachilas, Loukas, 2016. "Interpreting sociopolitical change by using Chaos Theory: A lesson from Sparta and Athens," MPRA Paper 76117, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. George Tridimas, 2017. "Constitutional choice in ancient Athens: the evolution of the frequency of decision making," Constitutional Political Economy, Springer, vol. 28(3), pages 209-230, September.
    9. Emmanouil-Marios L. Economou & Nicholas C. Kyriazis & Nikolaos A. Kyriazis, 2021. "Money Decentralization under Direct Democracy Procedures. The Case of Classical Athens," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 14(1), pages 1-17, January.
    10. Andrianova, Svetlana & Demetriades, Panicos & Xu, Chenggang, 2011. "Political Economy Origins of Financial Markets in Europe and Asia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 39(5), pages 686-699, May.
    11. Carl Hampus Lyttkens & George Tridimas & Anna Lindgren, 2018. "Making direct democracy work: a rational-actor perspective on the graphe paranomon in ancient Athens," Constitutional Political Economy, Springer, vol. 29(4), pages 389-412, December.
    12. Gwaindepi, Abel, 2019. "Domestic revenue mobilization in Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America: A comparative analysis since 1980," Lund Papers in Economic History 209, Lund University, Department of Economic History.
    13. Broadberry, Stephen & Gardner, Leigh, 2014. "African economic growth in a European mirror: a historical perspective," Economic History Working Papers 56493, London School of Economics and Political Science, Department of Economic History.
    14. Broadberry, Stephen & Gardner, Leigh, 2013. "Africa's Growth Prospects in a European mirror: a Historical Perspective," CAGE Online Working Paper Series 172, Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE).
    15. Carmine Guerriero, 2020. "Endogenous Institutions and Economic Outcomes," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 87(346), pages 364-405, April.
    16. Chilosi, David, 2014. "Risky Institutions: Political Regimes and the Cost of Public Borrowing in Early Modern Italy," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 74(3), pages 887-915, September.
    17. Soeren C. Schwuchow & George Tridimas, 2022. "The political economy of Solon’s law against neutrality in civil wars," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 192(3), pages 249-272, September.
    18. Iyigun, Murat & Rubin, Jared & Seror, Avner, 2018. "A Theory of Conservative Revivals," IZA Discussion Papers 11954, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    19. Iyigun, Murat & Rubin, Jared & Seror, Avner, 2021. "A theory of cultural revivals," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 135(C).
    20. Kyriazis, Nicholas & Metaxas, Theodore, 2013. "The emergence of democracy: a behavioural perspective," MPRA Paper 47146, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:kap:pubcho:v:181:y:2019:i:1:d:10.1007_s11127-018-00632-w. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.