The Secret History of Democracy the Secret History of Democracy

The Secret History of Democracy The Secret History of Democracy Edited by Benjamin Isakhan Research Fellow, Centre for Dialogue, La Trobe University, Australia Stephen Stockwell Professor of Journalism and Communication, School of Humanities, Griffith University, Australia Introduction, conclusion, editorial matter and selection © Benjamin Isakhan and Stephen Stockwell 2011 All remaining chapters © respective authors 2011 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2011 978-0-230-24421-4 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 6-10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The authors have asserted their rights to be identified as the authors of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2011 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN 978-1-349-31887-2 ISBN 978-0-230-29946-7 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/9780230299467 This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. 10987654321 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 Transferred to Digital Printing in 2011 Contents Acknowledgements vii Notes on Contributors viii Introduction: Democracy and History 1 Benjamin Isakhan and Stephen Stockwell Part I Pre-Athenian Democracy 1 What is so ‘Primitive’ about ‘Primitive Democracy’? Comparing the Ancient Middle East and Classical Athens 19 Benjamin Isakhan 2 Before Athens: Early Popular Government in Phoenicia and Greek City-States 35 Stephen Stockwell 3 Republics and Quasi-Democratic Institutions in Ancient India 49 Steven Muhlberger 4 Digging for Democracy in China 60 Pauline Keating Part II Democracy in the ‘Dark Ages’ 5 Behind a Veil: Islam’s Democratic History 79 Mohamad Abdalla and Halim Rane 6 Ideals and Aspirations: Democracy and Law-Making in Medieval Iceland 92 Patricia Pires Boulhosa 7 Democratic Culture in the Early Venetian Republic 105 Stephen Stockwell Part III Indigenous Democracy and Colonialism 8 Africa’s Indigenous Democracies: The Baganda of Uganda 123 Immaculate Kizza v vi Contents 9 The Hunters Who Owned Themselves 136 Philippe Paine 10 Aboriginal Australia and Democracy: Old Traditions, New Challenges 148 Larissa Behrendt 11 The Pre-History of the Post-Apartheid Settlement: Non-Racial Democracy in South Africa’s Cape Colony, 1853–1936 162 Poppy Fry Part IV Alternative Currents in Modern Democracy 12 Birthing Democracy: The Role of Women in the Democratic Discourse of the Middle East 177 K. Luisa Gandolfo 13 The Streets of Iraq: Protests and Democracy after Saddam 191 Benjamin Isakhan 14 Monitory Democracy? The Secret History of Democracy since 1945 204 John Keane Conclusion: Democratizing the History of Democracy 219 Benjamin Isakhan and Stephen Stockwell References 225 Index 244 Acknowledgements This book came from our long conversations about the nature and ori- gins of democracy. Such dialogues were inspired by a wide-ranging and diverse set of recent global events. The investigations that followed led us to the works of several like-minded scholars who shared our concern and passion for the history of democracy. Thankfully, we have been able to assemble work from many of them here and we are in debt to each of our contributors for their scholarly diligence in meeting tight dead- lines with quality writing. As editors, we consider ourselves fortunate to have worked with such a diverse and dedicated group of contributors, and we thank them all for their input and advice. We must make special mention of Steven Muhlberger and Phillipe Paine, for aiding our very earliest discussions and ideas about this project, and of John Keane, for his continuing support and encouragement, without which this project may never have come to fruition. We are also indebted to the exceptional academic, editorial and administrative talents of our research associate, Anne Richards. To the staff of our publisher, Palgrave Macmillan, we owe special thanks, particularly to Alison Howson for her initial support, to Amber Stone-Galilee for her editorial work and to Liz Blackmore for her administrative assistance. At Griffith University we would like to acknowledge specifically Kay Ferres, former Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, for her support and for the resources she made available for the completion of the project. We would also like to thank our colleagues and friends at Griffith University, particularly those in the School of Humanities, the Griffith Islamic Research Unit, the Key Centre for Ethics, Law, Justice and Governance and the Griffith Centre for Cultural Research – all of whom provided the challenging and nurturing environment necessary for the completion of such a project. Benjamin would also like to thank La Trobe University and his colleagues at the Centre for Dialogue. Personally, Benjamin would like to thank his family and friends for their much needed words of encouragement and love. Stephen would like to thank his parents for their continuing support, and his wife Ann and his son Matthew for their patience and love. vii Notes on Contributors Mohamad Abdalla combines the role of serious scholar, imam and noted public intellectual. He has degrees in Science (with honours) and a PhD in Islamic Science, he is the founding director of the Griffith Uni- versity Islamic Research Unit and he acts as co-director of the National Centre of Excellence for Islamic Studies, Australia. He is the author of the recently published book Islamic Science: The Myth of the Decline The- ory (Verlag, 2008) and co-editor of Islam and the Australian News Media (Melbourne University Press, 2010). Larissa Behrendt is a Eualeyai/Kamillaroi woman. She is the Professor of Law and Director of Research at the Jumbunna Indigenous House of Learning at the University of Technology, Sydney. Larissa is a Land Com- missioner at the Land and Environment Court and the Alternate Chair of the Serious Offenders Review Board. She is the author of several books on Indigenous legal issues. She won the 2002 David Uniapon Award and a 2005 Commonwealth Writer’s Prize for her novel Home (University of Queensland Press, 2004). Larissa is Board Member of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Director of the Bangarra Dance Theatre and Chair of the National Indigenous Television service. Patricia Pires Boulhosa has degrees in history and law from the Pontifical University of Sao Paulo, and a PhD in medieval Icelandic history from the University of Cambridge. She has held the Snorri Sturluson Icelandic Fellowship, and in 2006 delivered the Jón Sigurðsson Memorial Lecture. Her publications include Icelanders and the Kings of Norway: Mediaeval Sagas and Legal Texts (Brill, 2005) and Gamli sáttmáli: Tilurð og tilgangur (Sögufélag, 2006), as well as articles on the historio- graphical use of medieval Icelandic texts. She is currently completing a translation into Portuguese of the medieval poetic text Völuspá and a study of Icelandic medieval fisheries and trade. Poppy Fry is Assistant Professor of History at Saint Anselm Col- lege in Manchester, New Hampshire. She received her doctorate from Harvard University in 2007. Her dissertation explored the relationship between ethnic identification and British colonial authority in South viii Notes on Contributors ix Africa’s Eastern Cape between 1800 and 1936. She is the author of ‘Siyamfenguza: Agriculture, Trade, Witchcraft and the Rise of Fingo-ness in South Africa’s Eastern Cape, 1800–1835’, forthcoming in the Journal of Southern African Studies. K. Luisa Gandolfo is a researcher affiliated to the Centre for Middle Eastern and Mediterranean Studies at the Panteion University in Athens, Greece. She completed her doctoral studies at the University of Exeter and has published papers concerning religion, socio-economic change, and identity in the Palestinian community in Jordan. She is currently engaged in further research concerning issues of faith, identity, and culture in Jordan, Palestine and Syria. Benjamin Isakhan is Research Fellow at the Centre for Dialogue at La Trobe University, Australia. He was formerly Research Fellow at the Griffith Islamic Research Unit, part of the Key Centre for Ethics, Law, Justice and Governance at Griffith University and affiliated with the National Centre of Excellence for Islamic Studies, Australia. Benjamin is the author

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