NGM's Democracy Forum [Profs on the Town]

The following blog post was written by Luis Otero and Sammy LeBrasseur, two students in Professor Christov’s “Justice” Origins class.
In accordance with our study of ancient Greek democracy, professor Christov invited our class to attend a democracy forum at the National Geographic Museum on September 26. The forum discussed ideas relating to our class’s study of ancient Greek philosopher Thucydides’ work On Justice, Power, and Human Nature, a collection of excerpts from The History of the Peloponnesian War, a work which focused on Athenian democracy and the hand it had in leading Athens to defeat by the Spartans. The panelists, moderated by the University of Virginia Miller Center’s CEO and director William Antholis, included Stanford University fellow Markos Kounalakis, former Hungarian ambassador Eleni Kounalakis, Stanford University professor Josiah Ober, and award-winning professor Brook Manville.
The forum focused on four ancient Greek philosophers who were critical to helping shape the democracy we know today: Pericles, Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. Pericles’ arguments for democracy in conjunction with Socrates’, Plato’s, and Aristotle’s criticisms against it were fundamental in shaping the different aspects of democracy as a working concept that would eventually become the foundation for establishment of our own government in the United States.
Throughout the ages, we learned, democracy has shifted three times. Democracy as a concept which started as early as the first hunter-gatherer societies, in which early humans realized that mutual benefit that comes from collaboration is essential to helping societies to develop. The idea shifted slightly when ancient Greek general Pericles spoke about the importance of democratic citizens knowing both how to rule and how to be ruled, an idea parallel to the rotation system which became popular in democratic Greek politeia such as Athens. Today, in the U.S. and the world, we can see that democracy has yet again a changed meaning from that of the ancient Greeks. While America’s democracy has its roots in Greek political thinking, the absence of many political concepts, such as the rotation system, mark a clear difference between the two.

Moreover, this panel of scholars hinted to the idea that democracy as we know it will inevitably see yet another transformation: Democracy 4.0. One that involves the synthesis of technology, more specifically the internet. We are seeing this happen more frequently as democracy is taking over the methods companies use to produce goods and services. Through increasing consumer feedback and participation in the development of products and services, companies have found that being more “democratic” with their consumers has led to greater benefits for the consumers and companies alike.
Having the chance to hear the thoughts and opinions of highly distinguished experts who have devoted their lives to the study of such complex concepts of human interaction was an invaluable experience. While we learned so much, what is even more important is the wide range of questions and newfound eagerness we all have to continue learning about the idea of democracy. On behalf of our class we would like to say: Thank you, Professor Christov!