IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jjrfmx/v14y2021i1p30-d478232.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Money Decentralization under Direct Democracy Procedures. The Case of Classical Athens

Author

Listed:
  • Emmanouil-Marios L. Economou

    (Department of Economics, University of Thessaly, 38333 Volos, Greece)

  • Nicholas C. Kyriazis

    (Department of Economics, University of Thessaly, 38333 Volos, Greece)

  • Nikolaos A. Kyriazis

    (Department of Economics, University of Thessaly, 38333 Volos, Greece)

Abstract

By analyzing the case of Athens during the Classical period (508-323 BCE) the main thesis of this paper is that under direct democracy procedures and the related institutional setup, a monetary system without a Central Bank may function relatively well. We focus on the following issues: (i) Τhe procedures of currency issuing in the Athenian city-state, (ii) why the Athenian drachma become the leading international currency in the Mediterranean world (iii) how and towards which targets monetary policy without a Central Bank was possible (iv) defining the targets of monetary policy and the mechanisms for its implementation (v) the role of money in the economy (vi) the issue of deficit spending (vii) the reasons of the replacement of the Athenian drachma as a leading currency by others from the Hellenistic period onwards (viii) the correlation of our findings regarding the decentralized character of monetary policy in Classical Athens to today’s realities, such as the issue of cryptocurrencies. Our analysis shows that monetary policy without a Central Bank was possible, with its foremost aim being the stability of the currency (mainly, silver coins) in order to enhance trust in it and so, make it an international currency which could outcompete other currencies. Since there was no Central Bank like today, monetary policy decisions were taken by the popular assembly of citizens in combination with the market forces themselves.

Suggested Citation

  • Emmanouil-Marios L. Economou & Nicholas C. Kyriazis & Nikolaos A. Kyriazis, 2021. "Money Decentralization under Direct Democracy Procedures. The Case of Classical Athens," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 14(1), pages 1-17, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jjrfmx:v:14:y:2021:i:1:p:30-:d:478232
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1911-8074/14/1/30/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1911-8074/14/1/30/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. William N. Goetzmann, 2016. "Money Changes Everything: How Finance Made Civilization Possible," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, number 10662.
    2. Bergh, Andreas & Lyttkens, Carl Hampus, 2014. "Measuring institutional quality in ancient Athens," Journal of Institutional Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 10(2), pages 279-310, June.
    3. Bitros, George C. & Karayiannis, Anastassios D., 2008. "Values and institutions as determinants of entrepreneurship in ancient Athens," Journal of Institutional Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 4(2), pages 205-230, August.
    4. Emmanouil M. L. Economou, 2020. "The Achaean Federation in Ancient Greece," Frontiers in Economic History, Springer, number 978-3-030-52697-9, Fall.
    5. Abbassi, Puriya & Linzert, Tobias, 2012. "The effectiveness of monetary policy in steering money market rates during the financial crisis," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 34(4), pages 945-954.
    6. Christie Smith & Aaron Kumar, 2018. "Crypto‐Currencies – An Introduction To Not‐So‐Funny Moneys," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(5), pages 1531-1559, December.
    7. Acton, Peter, 2014. "Poiesis: Manufacturing in Classical Athens," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199335930.
    8. Economou, Emmanouil M. L. & Kyriazis, Nicholas C., 2017. "The emergence and the evolution of property rights in ancient Greece," Journal of Institutional Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 13(1), pages 53-77, March.
    9. Michael Joyce & David Miles & Andrew Scott & Dimitri Vayanos, 2012. "Quantitative Easing and Unconventional Monetary Policy – an Introduction," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 122(564), pages 271-288, November.
    10. Nicholas Kyriazis, 2009. "Financing the Athenian state: public choice in the age of Demosthenes," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 27(2), pages 109-127, April.
    11. John C. Williams, 2011. "Unconventional monetary policy: lessons from the past three years," FRBSF Economic Letter, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, issue oct3.
    12. Tridimas, George, 2019. "Democracy without political parties: the case of ancient Athens," Journal of Institutional Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 15(6), pages 983-998, December.
    13. Bell, Stephanie, 2001. "The Role of the State and the Hierarchy of Money," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 25(2), pages 149-163, March.
    14. Ian Morris, 2004. "Economic Growth in Ancient Greece," Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics (JITE), Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 160(4), pages 709-742, December.
    15. Joshua Günther & Felix Hahn, 2019. "Choregia and trierarchy as profit-oriented entrepreneurships," Constitutional Political Economy, Springer, vol. 30(2), pages 177-193, June.
    16. Bitros & G.C. & Economou & E.M.L. & Kyriazis & N.C., 2020. "Democracy and Money: Lessons for Today from Athens in Classical Times," European Research Studies Journal, European Research Studies Journal, vol. 0(4), pages 3-5.
    17. François De Callatay, 2011. "Quantifying monetary supplies in Greco-Roman times," ULB Institutional Repository 2013/114250, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    18. George Halkos & Nickolas Kyriazis, 2010. "The Athenian economy in the age of Demosthenes: path dependence and change," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 29(3), pages 255-277, June.
    19. Rainer Böhme & Nicolas Christin & Benjamin Edelman & Tyler Moore, 2015. "Bitcoin: Economics, Technology, and Governance," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 29(2), pages 213-238, Spring.
    20. Alain Bresson, 2016. "The Making of the Ancient Greek Economy: Institutions, Markets, and Growth in the City-States," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, number 10376.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Emmanouil M. L. Economou & Nikolaos A. Kyriazis & Nicholas C. Kyriazis, 2021. "Managing Financial Risks while Performing International Commercial Transactions. Intertemporal Lessons from Athens in Classical Times," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 14(11), pages 1-14, October.
    2. George E. Halkos & Nicholas C. Kyriazis & Emmanouil M. L. Economou, 2021. "Plato as a Game Theorist towards an International Trade Policy," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 14(3), pages 1-15, March.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Emmanouil M. L. Economou & Nikolaos A. Kyriazis, 2021. "Achieving Sustainable Financial Transactions under Regimes without a Central Bank—An Intertemporal Comparison," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(3), pages 1-13, January.
    2. Emmanouil M. L. Economou & Nikolaos A. Kyriazis & Nicholas C. Kyriazis, 2021. "Managing Financial Risks while Performing International Commercial Transactions. Intertemporal Lessons from Athens in Classical Times," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 14(11), pages 1-14, October.
    3. George E. Halkos & Nicholas C. Kyriazis & Emmanouil M. L. Economou, 2021. "Plato as a Game Theorist towards an International Trade Policy," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 14(3), pages 1-15, March.
    4. Federica Carugati & Josiah Ober & Barry R. Weingast, 2019. "Is development uniquely modern? Ancient Athens on the doorstep," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 181(1), pages 29-47, October.
    5. George Tridimas, 2020. "Modelling the Quest for Status in Ancient Greece: Paying for Liturgies," Homo Oeconomicus: Journal of Behavioral and Institutional Economics, Springer, vol. 37(3), pages 213-236, December.
    6. Kyriazis, Nicholas & Economou, Emmanouel/Marios/Lazaros, 2012. "Property rights and democratic values in Bronze Age and Archaic Greece," MPRA Paper 42399, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Pitsoulis, Athanassios, 2011. "The egalitarian battlefield: Reflections on the origins of majority rule in archaic Greece," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 27(1), pages 87-103, March.
    8. Bryan C. McCannon, 2017. "Who pays taxes? Liturgies and the Antidosis procedure in Ancient Athens," Constitutional Political Economy, Springer, vol. 28(4), pages 407-421, December.
    9. Kyriazis, Nicholas & Metaxas, Theodore, 2013. "The emergence of democracy: a behavioural perspective," MPRA Paper 47146, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    10. Lyttkens, Carl Hampus & Gerding, Henrik, 2015. "Understanding the Politics of Perikles Around 450 BC. The Benefits of an Economic Perspective," Working Papers 2015:13, Lund University, Department of Economics.
    11. Arvanitidis Paschalis A. & Kyriazis Nicholas C., 2013. "Democracy and Public Choice in Classical Athens," Peace Economics, Peace Science, and Public Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 19(2), pages 213-248, August.
    12. repec:elg:eechap:15325_25 is not listed on IDEAS
    13. Economou, Emmanouel/Marios/Lazaros & Kyriazis, Nicholas & Zachilas, Loukas, 2016. "Interpreting sociopolitical change by using Chaos Theory: A lesson from Sparta and Athens," MPRA Paper 76117, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. Robert M. Rosenswig, 2024. "Understanding money; Or, why social and financial accounting should not be conflated," Economic Anthropology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 11(1), pages 71-86, January.
    15. Nicholas Kyriazis & Xenophon Paparrigopoulos, 2014. "War and democracy in ancient Greece," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 38(1), pages 163-183, August.
    16. Nicholas Kyriazis & Emmanouil Economou, 2015. "Macroculture, sports and democracy in classical Greece," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 40(3), pages 431-455, December.
    17. Economou, Emmanouel/Marios/Lazaros & Kyriazis, Nicholas, 2015. "Athenian fiscal expansionary policy and peace versus war strategy," MPRA Paper 62987, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    18. Bitros, George C., 2021. "Destabilizing asymmetries in central banking: With some enlightenment from money in classical Athens," The Journal of Economic Asymmetries, Elsevier, vol. 23(C).
    19. Economou, Emmanouel/Marios/Lazaros & Kyriazis, Nicholas, 2017. "Choosing the optimal public choice scenario through a democratic educational procedure: A history from ancient Athens," MPRA Paper 76810, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    20. McCannon, Bryan C., 2010. "The median juror and the trial of Socrates," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 26(4), pages 533-540, December.
    21. Gan‐Ochir Doojav & Davaasukh Damdinjav, 2023. "The macroeconomic effects of unconventional monetary policies in a commodity‐exporting economy: Evidence from Mongolia," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(4), pages 4627-4654, October.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jjrfmx:v:14:y:2021:i:1:p:30-:d:478232. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.