TY - JOUR
T1 - The failure of ancient Greek growth:
T2 - institutions, culture and energy cost
AU - Tridimas, George
PY - 2019/4/30
Y1 - 2019/4/30
N2 - Along with introducing democracy, advancing philosophy and excelling at the arts, during the period 800–300 BCE ancient Greece achieved substantial economic prosperity. Recent literature attributes the efflorescence to the institutions and culture of democratic city-states. However, the city-states failed to initiate sustained growth. Technological progress remained slow and the economic efflorescence ended after the prevalence of Macedon and the subsequent Roman conquest. The present study scrutinises the roles of city-state institutions and culture. It shows that ultimately ancient Greece could not sustain long-run growth because a multitude of independent small city-states prevented the exploitation of economies of scale and stoked continual wars that exhausted them financially and militarily, and because of a culture valuing landholding, self-sufficiency and collectivist attitudes.
AB - Along with introducing democracy, advancing philosophy and excelling at the arts, during the period 800–300 BCE ancient Greece achieved substantial economic prosperity. Recent literature attributes the efflorescence to the institutions and culture of democratic city-states. However, the city-states failed to initiate sustained growth. Technological progress remained slow and the economic efflorescence ended after the prevalence of Macedon and the subsequent Roman conquest. The present study scrutinises the roles of city-state institutions and culture. It shows that ultimately ancient Greece could not sustain long-run growth because a multitude of independent small city-states prevented the exploitation of economies of scale and stoked continual wars that exhausted them financially and militarily, and because of a culture valuing landholding, self-sufficiency and collectivist attitudes.
KW - Ancient Greece
KW - city–state
KW - Institutions
KW - culture
KW - war
KW - relative cost of energy
KW - growth
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85048897378&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - https://pure.ulster.ac.uk/en/publications/the-failure-of-ancient-greek-growth-institutions-culture-and-ener
U2 - 10.1017/S1744137418000188
DO - 10.1017/S1744137418000188
M3 - Article
VL - 15
SP - 327
EP - 350
JO - Journal of Institutional Economics
JF - Journal of Institutional Economics
SN - 1744-1374
IS - 2
ER -