In Search of the Greek State

A Rejoinder to M.H. Hansen

Bibliographic Data

ID7351120
AuthorsMoshe Berent (corresponding author)
Year2004
Volume21
Issue1-2
Pages107-146
Publication date2004-01-01
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenuePolis The Journal for Ancient Greek and Roman Political Thought (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0142-257X • E-ISSN: 2051-2996
PublisherBrill (PUBLISHER • NL)
DOI10.1163/20512996-90000063
OpenAlexW1978457692
LanguageEN
Citations received8

In a collection of articles based on my Cambridge doctoral thesis (1994) I have argued that, contrary to what has been traditionally assumed, the Greek polis was not a State but rather what anthropologists call ‘a stateless society’. The latter is characterized by the absence of ‘government’, that is, an agency which has separated itself out from the rest of social life and which monopolizes the use of violence. In a recent article Mogens Herman Hansen discusses and rejects my notion of the stateless polis . This paper is a rejoinder to Hansen’s criticism and offers critical analysis of the concept of ‘The Greek State’ which has been employed by Hansen and by other ancient historians. Among the questions discussed: To what extent did the polis have amonopoly on violence? To what extent do the relations between the polis and its territory resemble those of (tribal) stateless communities? Could the State/Society distinction be applied to the Greek polis ? How is the Greek distinction between the private and the public different from its modern counterpart and how is this difference related to the statelessness of the Greek polis

Agency (philosophy · Ancient Greek · Criticism · Political science · Social science · Sociology · State (computer science · Stateless protocol · Statelessness · Classical Antiquity Studies · Classics · Contemporary and Historical Greek Studies · History · Law · Mathematics

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