Collective “memories” of the original democracy of classical Athens have inspired the formation of the direct-democracy, “Syntagma Square” movement. The movement, a reaction to the ongoing social crisis in Greece, challenges the legitimacy of the liberal, representative, democracy accusing the “memorandum party system” for immoral contact and treasonous collaboration with Greece’s foreign debtors. Taking this development as an opportunity to examine in situ a modern version of “direct democracy” and the cognitive patterns that animate it, the essay compares ancient and current democratic processes and reflects on their ontological and cosmological presuppositions. Employing the Weberian concept of “acosmistic brotherhood” the essay analytically explores and compares the two democratic instances and reflects on the foundations of a stable democratic regime.
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