Josiah Ober

The prize citation for Dr. Ober’s 2023 Barry Prize reads:

Uniting the fields of classics, philosophy, political science, and history, Josiah Ober has refreshed the theory and practice of democracy by connecting its historical sources in classical Greece to its various applications in the modern world. As democracy has spread from a mere handful of nations to cover large portions of the globe, he has helped us to understand why and how we must preserve and protect its moral roots. The Academy honors Dr. Ober’s distinguished contributions to humanity’s perennial quest to establish and maintain government of the people, by the people, and for the people.

Josiah Ober is the Markos and Eleni Kounalakis Chair in Honor of Constantine Mitsotakis Professor of Political Science and Classics in the School of Humanities and Science at Stanford University. He works on historical institutionalism and political theory, focusing on the political thought and practice of the ancient Greek world and its contemporary relevance. He is the author of a number of books, mostly published by Princeton University Press, including Mass and Elite in Democratic Athens (1989), Political Dissent in Democratic Athens (2008), Democracy and Knowledge (2008), The Rise and Fall of Classical Greece (2016) and Demopolis: Democracy before Liberalism (2018). He has also published about 75 articles and chapters, including recent articles in American Political Science Review, Philosophical Studies, Hesperia, Polis and Transactions of the American Philological Association.

November 2023