Democracy and Protest in the Ancient World

  • Matt Clement
Chapter
First Online:

Abstract

The relationship of riots, protest and the law has a lot to do with that most fundamental of political concepts—democracy. Democracy has its roots in the collective actions of sections of society carried out to attain their rights as citizens—what we might call today their civil or human rights. Examples from ancient Athens and Rome will be discussed to illustrate how citizens took government into their hands in protest at tyrannical injustice and institutionalised exclusion from government, and in the process forged their own popular institutions such as people’s assemblies, mass voting and tribunes of the people. Even more primitive forms of government, such as monarchy, were first understood to be institutions established by groups of people in communities in order to ensure a stable pattern of everyday life that could police violence to prevent social breakdown.

Keywords

Land Reform Direct Democracy Public Meeting Italian Peninsula Popular Interest 
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.
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Copyright information

© The Author(s) 2016

Authors and Affiliations

  • Matt Clement
    • 1
  1. 1.Faculty of Humanities and Social SciencesUniversity of WinchesterWinchesterUK

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