The Secret History of Democracy

1. Introduction: Democracy and History
Benjamin Isakhan, Stephen Stockwell

Part I. Pre-Athenian Democracy

2. What is so ‘Primitive’ about ‘Primitive Democracy’? Comparing the Ancient Middle East and Classical Athens
Benjamin Isakhan

3. Before Athens: Early Popular Government in Phoenicia and Greek City-States
Stephen Stockwell

4. Republics and Quasi-Democratic Institutions in Ancient India
Steven Muhlberger

5. Digging for Democracy in China
Pauline Keating

Part II. Democracy in the ‘Dark Ages’

6. Behind a Veil: Islam’s Democratic History
Mohamad Abdalla, Halim Rane

7. Ideals and Aspirations: Democracy and Law-Making in Medieval Iceland
Patricia Pires Boulhosa

8. Democratic Culture in the Early Venetian Republic
Stephen Stockwell

Part III. Indigenous Democracy and Colonialism

9. Africa’s Indigenous Democracies: The Baganda of Uganda
Immaculate Kizza

10. The Hunters Who Owned Themselves
Philippe Paine

11. Aboriginal Australia and Democracy: Old Traditions, New Challenges
Larissa Behrendt

12. The Pre-History of the Post-Apartheid Settlement: Non-Racial Democracy in South Africa’s Cape Colony, 1853–1936
Poppy Fry

Part IV. Alternative Currents in Modern Democracy

13. Birthing Democracy: The Role of Women in the Democratic Discourse of the Middle East
K. Luisa Gandolfo

14. The Streets of Iraq: Protests and Democracy after Saddam
Benjamin Isakhan

15. Monitory Democracy? The Secret History of Democracy since 1945
John Keane

16. Conclusion: Democratizing the History of Democracy
Benjamin Isakhan, Stephen Stockwell

Nyckelord: Political Science and International Relations, Political Theory, Political Philosophy, Comparative Politics, Social Philosophy, Political History, Political Science