Foundations of Democratic Societies

📋 Course Outline

1. Origins and institutional reforms of Athenian democracy in the 5th century BCE
2. Mechanisms and citizen participation in Athenian direct democracy
3. Role of rhetoric and political debate in Athenian democracy
4. Exclusion and social status of women, metics, and slaves in Athens
5. Philosophical reflections and 18th-century transformations of democratic ideas
6. Restricted political representation and suffrage under early 19th-century French regimes
7. Popular sovereignty movements and expansion of suffrage in mid-19th-century France
8. Authoritarianism and political control during the Second French Empire
9. Democratic consolidation and social tensions in the French Third Republic
10. Development and challenges of democracy in early 19th-century United States
11. Alexis de Tocqueville’s analysis of American democracy and its potential dangers
12. Post-World War II Latin American political crises and the impact of Cold War geopolitics

📖 1. Origins and institutional reforms of Athenian democracy in the 5th century BCE

🔑 Key Concepts & Definitions