Introduction: A Pre-History of Democracy

P erhaps the two most important developments in western political life in the modern era are the nearly total replacement of theocracy by secular governments and the (at least aspirational) triumph of democracy over any alternative system of political organization. This book attempts not only to understand these developments, but also to demonstrate the profound connection between them. How did it happen that democracy was transformed from being, as it was for Herodotus, Aristotle, Plato, and Thucydides, one possible and problematic regime type among many to become what John Dewey would describe in the past century in the following terms: “Democracy is not an alternative to other principles of associated life. It is the idea of community life itself” (Dewey 1927: 148)? My central claim is that understanding the triumph of democracy requires an appreciation of how modern democracy addresses and contributes to what Leo Strauss famously identified as the “theologico-political problem” (Strauss 1997a: 453). 1 That is to say, the origins of modern democracy differ from that of its ancient namesake most significantly in that modern democrats engaged in a centuries-long struggle against religious authorities and political forces supported by religion armed with the formidable power of divine revelation. Modernity could be neither a return to Athens, nor simply a revived Jerusalem precisely because Jerusalem had so thoroughly effaced the classical tradition of political philosophy in the intervening centuries. These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.