Tradeoffs of Inclusion: Development before Liberalism

In Classical Athens, access to key public goods—such as rule of law, legal stability, and economic opportunity—was extended to actors beyond the citizen body, including foreigners, resident aliens, and even slaves, without granting them formal political rights. This process of partial inclusion supported the city-state’s recovery and growth in the 4th century BCE after military defeat, civil war, and the loss of its imperial revenues. To stabilize democracy and promote economic development, Athens implemented a new constitutional framework that made legal change difficult, thereby enhancing institutional credibility and signaling commitment to redistribution. At the same time, it leveraged its natural resources—particularly silver mines and its port—by offering targeted rights to non-citizens. These included litigation rights and economic privileges, especially through the creation of specialized commercial courts (dikai emporikai), which provided faster and more accessible dispute resolution. Importantly, political citizenship remained tightly restricted to native-born Athenians. This selective extension of rights illustrates that meaningful inclusion can occur outside of formal citizenship, and that maintaining political exclusivity may be part of a sustainable institutional bargain. The Athenian case contrasts sharply with modern paradigms, where full political inclusion is often seen as a prerequisite for access to public goods. Instead, Athens shows that inclusive institutions may emerge through gradual, negotiated compromises between groups with divergent interests, and that such arrangements can underpin both democratic stability and economic prosperity. This historical evidence invites reconsideration of the assumption that liberal democratic norms are the only viable path toward inclusive development.

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