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This paper examines the relationship between democracy and law from an Athenian perspective. This paper argues that the Athenian law court maintained an open space of deliberation through institutional arrangements. Besides, the law court considered three dilemmas: sycophancy, conflict of public interests and the manipulation of fortune. This paper concludes that the Athenian rule of law means the jurors' thoughtful responses to these dilemmas. The law court provided the space for deliberation where the jurors, in their search for the highest public interest, took into account factors such as the relevant statutes, the spirit of law, public opinions and the background of individual cases. Athenian democracy and law complemented each other, for the laws made the people sovereign while the people protected the laws against irrational interference. To limit the scope of this paper, the court speeches of Aeschines and Demosthenes are chosen as the focus of discussion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Social Sciences & Philosophy is the property of Research Center for Humanities & Social Sciences, Academia Sinica and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Liberal democracy, in spite of its bad performance in many countries, is still taken to be the final human political establishment in its thinking mode and institutional framework among most political scientists. But some serious challenges are on the rise. The one I introduce here comes from ancient Chinese political tradition and is exemplified by four modern Chinese political scientists, who are all familiar with the doctrine of liberal democracy, but disagree with its thinking mode: the primacy of the politics of liberal democracy. Independently, they all put political primacy on good governing and treat it as the basis of any regime, democratic or not. This paper tries to expound this uniquely critical point on liberal democracy, and reveals its connection with the tradition of ancient China's political thought. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Social Sciences & Philosophy is the property of Research Center for Humanities & Social Sciences, Academia Sinica and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Journal of Social Sciences & Philosophy is the property of Research Center for Humanities & Social Sciences, Academia Sinica and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)