Perpetual Immigrant and the Limits of Athenian Democracy

Demetra Kasimis is Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago. Her research on classical Greek thought and democratic theory has been funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the American Council for Learned Societies, and has appeared in such journals as Political Theory and Contemporary Political Theory. The Perpetual Immigrant and the Limits of Athenian Democracy is her first book.

• Part I. Autochthony Trouble: 1. The metic in and out of theory; 2. Immigrant passing in Euripides' Ion, the tragedy of blood-based membership; Part II. A Metric Republic in Three Acts: 3. The Republic as a metic space; 4. Plato's open decret; 5. Of mimesis and metic: a reading of democracy in Book VIII; Part III. Evading Detection: 6. Citizen passing in Demosthenes 57: the oration of Athenian blood; Conclusion: political theory from the edges of Athenian democracy; Appendix. A metic timeline.

'The Perpetual Immigrant and the Limits of Athenian Democracy expands the frontier of critical democratic theory by offering original and insightful readings of Plato's political philosophy, Euripidean tragedy, and forensic oratory, Demetra Kasimis' probing analysis of the 'precarious proximity' of metoikoi - long-term non-native residents of ancient Athens - reveals much about classical political thought, Athenian history, and the entanglement of democratic ideals with nativist impulses. This book is both timely and a work for the ages. It has a great deal to offer to contemporary political theorists and classical historians alike. It should be read, pondered, and debated by everyone concerned with the contested category of democratic citizenship.' Josiah Ober, Stanford University, California