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Choosing Peace Instead of War. A Lesson from Athenian Democracy

  • Emmanouil M.L. Economou EMAIL logo and Nicholas C. Kyriazis
Published/Copyright: March 17, 2016

Abstract

The present essay discusses how a society can make decisions on specific issues according to how flexible or rigid it is in accepting new ideas and trends. Then, it explains how Athenian society abandoned war in favor of a grand peace strategy during the second half of the 4th century BCE. To achieve this, two visionary Athenian policymakers, Eubulus and Lycurgus, introduced fiscal expansionary policy programs which proved beneficial for the majority of the citizens. Through expansionary public works programs, Athenian citizens were now able to make decisions based on rational choices, based on a wider economic prospective. They could now gain more during periods of peace (as traders, ship-owners, “industrialists” etc.), providing compensation to the poor.

JEL: H30; H53; H56; N43; Z13; Z18

Acknowledgments

The authors want to express their many thanks to the referees and the editor for their comments which led to the significant improvement of this paper.

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Article note:

Versions of this paper were presented at the 12th Erfurt Conference on Fiscal Sociology, on October 12, 2012 and at the 33rd International Conference on Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, November 28–29, 2012, in Paris.


Published Online: 2016-3-17
Published in Print: 2016-4-1

©2016 by De Gruyter

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