This study enquires into the possibilities and limits of political decision making in Sparta. Using various examples, it shows that the Spartans tried to avoid processes of communal decision making and, therefore, tended to delay political decisions or to avoid them altogether. If that was not possible, they liked to argue on a non-political plane and hence decided on the basis of off-topic considerations. To explain this characteristic element of Spartan politics, the features of the most important Spartan institutions (mainly the double kingship and the Ephorate) are referred to. Evidently, not one of these constitutional bodies had been brought into life or designed with the question in mind whether and how it would be conducive to the ordered political decision making in the communal sphere. It conforms with these findings that the question how the different state institutions should interact remained unsolved till the end of Spartan history. The stability of the Spartan state, which was admired even in antiquity, seems to be, from this point of view, the result of agony rather than the result of deliberate conservatism.
Contents
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Requires Authentication UnlicensedStaatliche Institution und innergemeindlicher Diskurs: Politische Entscheidungsfindung in Sparta? (State Institutions and Discourse within the Community: Political Decision Making in Sparta?)LicensedSeptember 25, 2009
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Requires Authentication UnlicensedDie Entstehung der modernen Landschaftswahrnehmung (1580–1730) (The Making of a New Landscape Perception)LicensedSeptember 25, 2009
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Requires Authentication UnlicensedEin soziales „Dramma in musica”?: Verdi, alte Notabeln und neue Eliten im Theater des liberalen Italiens (A Social „Dramma in musica”?: Verdi, Old Notables and New Elites in the Theatre of Liberal Italy)LicensedSeptember 25, 2009
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Requires Authentication UnlicensedDas Dritte Reich dauerhaft fest im Blick?: Die Notwendigkeit einer erweiterten Perspektive in der Autobahngeschichte (The Third Reich Permanently in Focus?: The Necessity of an Extended Perspective in the History of the „Autobahn”)LicensedSeptember 25, 2009
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Requires Authentication UnlicensedAllgemeines (Miscellaneous)LicensedSeptember 25, 2009
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Requires Authentication UnlicensedAltertum (Antique)LicensedSeptember 25, 2009
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Requires Authentication UnlicensedMittelalter (Medieval History)LicensedSeptember 25, 2009
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Requires Authentication UnlicensedFrühe Neuzeit (Early Modern History)LicensedSeptember 25, 2009
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Requires Authentication Unlicensed19./20. Jahrhundert (19th/20th Century)LicensedSeptember 25, 2009
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Requires Authentication UnlicensedEingegangene Bücher (Received Books)LicensedSeptember 25, 2009