Inaug.-Diss.--Bonn. / Vita. Bibliography: p. 226-254.

In my thesis I analyse the issue of democracy in antiquity. Research includes practice and theory. At the beginning I will focus on the analysis of the real functioning of democracy in the Athenian polis (how the idea of democracy arose, what were the political institutions, who had or did not have a share in the controlling of the polis etc.). Emphasis is placed on the history of Athens in the 6th to 4th centuries BC. The core of this chapter is the time of Pericles when Athenian democracy reached its peak. The second part of the thesis describes how democracy was viewed by leading ancient thinkers - Plato and his disciple Aristotle. One of the aims of this thesis is to understand their criticism of the democratic establishment and what alternatives governments offer as better. The third part of the thesis is a comparison between political reality in ancient Athens and political theory in the works of Plato and Aristotle.