Democracia y populismo. Un relato de advertencia desde los siglos V y IV a.C.

Abstract

This work analyzes Plato’s perspective in his dialogue the Laws, arguing that it sets out to portray the most acceptable model of democracy he thought had a chance of eventually coming into being, an idea which is in tension with his Republic. It also studies some of Thucydides› descriptions of the operation of Athenian democracy under the pressures of warfare, and examines a few current varieties of populism in the world that are features of political systems which are, like ancient Athens, at least nominally democratic, in order to explore what the experience of Athens might offer us as a cautionary tale.