David Stasavage, "The Decline and Rise of Democracy: A Global History from Antiquity to Today" (Princeton UP, 2020)

Oct 18, 2025

David Stasavage, a prominent political scholar and Dean at NYU, explores the rich tapestry of democracy beyond ancient Greece. He highlights early democratic practices from the Americas to Mesopotamia, emphasizing how governance styles linked to state strength influenced consent. Stasavage discusses the pivotal role of literacy and bureaucratic capacity in shaping democracies and contrasts past parliamentary innovations with modern autocratic risks. Finally, he addresses contemporary challenges of scaling democracy and the significance of historical governance for today's political landscape.

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INSIGHT

Bureaucracy Shapes Regime Type

Strong centralized bureaucracies reduce rulers' dependence on society and favor autocracy.
Weak or absent bureaucracies force rulers to seek consent, enabling early democratic practices.

INSIGHT

Communication Enabled Bureaucracy

Writing and printing expanded bureaucratic capacity by spreading literacy and texts.
Religious rivals (e.g., Buddhists) helped diffuse texts that later enabled state examinations in China.

INSIGHT

Modern Democracy’s Double-Edged State

Modern democracies combine popular control with large, capable states, creating new vulnerabilities.
Powerful bureaucracies make democracies robust but open pathways for executives to act autocratically.

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Historical accounts of democracy's rise tend to focus on ancient Greece and pre-Renaissance Europe. The Decline and Rise of Democracy: A Global History from Antiquity to Today (Princeton University Press, 2020) draws from global evidence to show that the story is much richer--democratic practices were present in many places, at many other times, from the Americas before European conquest, to ancient Mesopotamia, to precolonial Africa. Delving into the prevalence of early democracy throughout the world, David Stasavage makes the case that understanding how and where these democracies flourished--and when and why they declined--can provide crucial information not just about the history of governance, but also about the ways modern democracies work and where they could manifest in the future.

Drawing from examples spanning several millennia, Stasavage first considers why states developed either democratic or autocratic styles of governance and argues that early democracy tended to develop in small places with a weak state and, counterintuitively, simple technologies. When central state institutions (such as a tax bureaucracy) were absent--as in medieval Europe--rulers needed consent from their populace to govern. When central institutions were strong--as in China or the Middle East--consent was less necessary and autocracy more likely. He then explores the transition from early to modern democracy, which first took shape in England and then the United States, illustrating that modern democracy arose as an effort to combine popular control with a strong state over a large territory. Democracy has been an experiment that has unfolded over time and across the world--and its transformation is ongoing.

Amidst rising democratic anxieties, The Decline and Rise of Democracy widens the historical lens on the growth of political institutions and offers surprising lessons for all who care about governance.

David Stasavage is dean for the social sciences and Julius Silver Professor of Politics at New York University.

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