The Spartan Ideal in a Post-liberal Age

• In Event: Ancient History as Political Theory

Abstract

Although democratic Athens has long been the focus of study in political theory, influential thinkers from the classical era to the nineteenth century celebrated the Spartan politeia, the “regime” or “constitution” attributed to the legendary Lycurgus, as the ideal or best constitutional order. After laying out the grounds of this earlier celebration of the Spartan politeia—especially the regime’s success in addressing the problems of faction and war—this paper argues that the claims about political affairs undergirding the praise of Sparta have re-emerged in what some scholars call our post-liberal age. These claims are, in particular, the weakness of reason against passion, opinion, force, and faction; the necessary place of habituation, reverence for orthodox beliefs, practices, and tradition in the education to civic virtue and rule of law; and the ultimate priority of praxis and over theoria. I show how these claims belong to certain critiques of liberal constitutionalism on both the left and the right and how an investigation of the Spartan politeia illuminates their significance for debates about political order today.

Author

• Susan D. Collins, University of Notre Dame