Oligarchy Ancient and Modern

Please join us for a Directed Studies colloquium on Oligarchy and Democracy in the ancient Greek world. On Thursday, 11/12, at 4 pm in HQ L02, Professor Matt Simonton (Princeton) will discuss his book Classical Greek Oligarchy: A Political History, which explores the phenomenon of oligarchy, or the “rule of the few,” specifically how wealthy ruling elites designed institutions to keep themselves united and their subject populations divided. The study of ancient oligarchy invites comparison with contemporary representative democracies, which have increasingly been criticized as crypto- (or just outright) oligarchies. What does the struggle against the rule of the few look like in the twenty-first century?