Global History of Democracy

This option paper will explore the Global History of Democracy from antiquity to the end of the twentieth century.  It proposes to do so by offering a series of six seminars, organised in distinct periods and looking at a variety of key themes covering a wide geographical scope.  Seminars will be delivered by different speakers with particular expertise on the relevant period, themes and regions in their respective sessions.  It will bring together a wealth of literature on the topic from different disciplines, while encouraging students to examine selected written, visual and oral primary sources.  The course aims to revise what has been labelled by some scholars ‘the standard history of democracy’, by critically engaging with recent trends in the literature that offer decentred approaches to democracy, moving away from the traditional narrative with its almost exclusive focus on ancient Greece and Rome, and a handful of western countries.