Political transitions in ancient Greece and medieval Italy: An analytic narrative

© 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg. All rights are reserved.Models of political transitions have mostly focused on the 19th and 20th centuries. Their setup tends to be specific to the contemporary period. This chapter reviews the events that led to democracy in ancient Athens and to rule by council in medieval Venice. We confront the available models of political transition with these events. We find evidence that war and economic conditions played a key role. The political economy models that incorporate these features do well in explaining the transitions in both ancient Athens and medieval Venice.