The Emergence of Democratic Constitutions: Comparing the Modern World to Ancient Greece

Abstract

Democracy has flourished twice in human history: first in ancient Greece and then, more than two millennia later, in the modern world. Although the historical record regarding most Greek poleis (city-states) is scant, there nevertheless exists sufficient information to categorize the constitutions of nearly 200 of the more than 1000 poleis that once existed. Using similar data from the modern world, we compare two centuries of ancient data to two centuries of modern data. We find that, in both eras, democracy grew in prevalence because transitions to democracy were more frequent than transitions away from democracy. Also in both eras, the spread of democracy occurred gradually, yet in the long run democracy became the most common form of constitution. Democracy appears to have expanded more rapidly among Greek poleis than among modern countries; however, we observe that after reaching 50 percent, the proportion of Greek democracies declined, rose again to half of all states, declined again, and rose to half again. The modern world just recently reached the 50 percent threshold, and whether it follows the Greek pattern remains to be seen.