Democrazia greca, ‘sovranità’ e ‘stato di natura’: su due problemi dei moderni e sulla loro assenza nel pensiero politico greco

Greek Democracy, ‘Sovereignty’ and ‘State of Nature’ : On Two Problems of Moderns and Their Absence in Greek Political Thought · The review of a recent book on the modern reception of Greek democracy (Paulo Butti de Lima, Democrazia. L’invenzione degli antichi e gli usi dei moderni, 2019), together with a general text on Greek democracy (Stefano Ferrucci, Democrazia, 2022), shows that, in the Western tradition from the Middle Ages to the contemporary age, two issues are recurring in the debate for or against democracy, even when it is based on Greek sources: the concept of sovereignty and the identification of the form of government practiced by primeval mankind, still living in a state of nature. This may be explained as consequence of the biblical tradition, as well as of other factors (Roman political thought; myth of the noble savage). Conversely, in the Greek political thought (5th and 4th centuries bc and, partly, Hellenistic age), these two problems are largely absent; the yardstick of judgment on the various politeiai is their utility for the State and/or for the common good, and this approach is clear in both theoretical discussions (Plato, Aristotle, Polybius) and polemical texts, in favor or against democracy (Pericles’ Epitaphius; Old Oligarch; Herodotus’ logos tripolikos).