Bring back the city-state?

I love seeing Greek history in the the Wall Street Journal, but I was skeptical about this article on why we should revive the city-state. According to the article, city-states develop robust economies because of regional specialization, unlike nation-states which coast along on "agriculture, tourism and a knack for ... design".

The main example of a thriving modern city-state was South Tyrol, an Italian province with the highest GDP and lowest unemployment in the nation. But the more I read about South Tyrol, the more it seemed that the circumstances of its creation would be impossible to duplicate, if not actually undesirable. The region was annexed to Italy as a way of persuading that country to enter WW I against the Central Powers. Decades of upheaval followed since the province was actually 90% German-speaking. Now, as a result of efforts to provide the German speakers with some autonomy, the entire province is largely self-governing.

Based on the serendipitous (and harsh) beginnings of South Tyrol, I wonder whether city-states seem great because we only see the ones that succeed. A city has to have a strong identity and assets worth protecting to thrive under such a system. As with so many things in life, it's great when it works.

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Memorial Day

The Kerameikos, via Wikimedia Commons

Most of those who have spoken here before me have commended the lawgiver who added this oration to our other funeral customs. It seemed to them a worthy thing that such an honor should be given at their burial to the dead who have fallen on the field of battle. But I should have preferred that, when men's deeds have been brave, they should be honored in deed only, and with such an honor as this public funeral, which you are now witnessing. Then the reputation of many would not have been imperiled on the eloquence or want of eloquence of one, and their virtues believed or not as he spoke well or ill. For it is difficult to say neither too little nor too much; and even moderation is apt not to give the impression of truthfulness. 

-Pericles' Funeral Oration, tr. Benjamin Jowett (1881) Pin It

Dobby vs. Pericles: A Comparison

Yes, that Dobby (tongue firmly in cheek):

Pericles
-Defended freedom in the funeral oration after opening a can of whup-ass on Samos and Byzantium
-Unsuccessfully tried to save his friend Phidias from imprisonment
-Died of an unexpected plague

Dobby
-Declared he is a free elf before opening a can of whup-ass on Bellatrix Lestrange
-Unsuccessfully tried to save his hero Harry Potter from returning to school
-Died of an unexpected dagger wound

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Greece and Rome in the News: "Self-Improvement Wednesday" at ABC Sydney

In the "Self-Improvement Wednesday" section of the Australian Broadcasting Company's website, you can listen to quite a nice mini-lecture on disaster and political spin in ancient Greece and Rome. I find the lecture a very charming idea. If more people in the states considered learning a form of recreation, my fellow classicists and I would be much wealthier and more reliably employed than we are now. Pin It