Зашто је политичка теорија настала тек у старој Грчкој?
Why was the Political Theory Created in Ancient Greece?

Summary/Abstract: That political philosophy and political theory as such, appeared in Classical Greece and not before or elsewhere, is a hard and indisputable fact of modern scholarship. But to acknowledge and perceive a fact is one thing, to explain it quite another. Why were the ancestors of modern scientific and philosophical disciplines created in Ancient Greece and not somewhere else is a difficult question that was tackled by many capable researchers from various fields, in the last two centuries. Philosophers, historians, archaeologists, philologists and students of politics, to name but a few of these fields, approached the problem from different angles, and gave many answers to it, both valid and unsound. Many of the more simplistic explanations, especially those that seek to connect the “Greek miracle” with a single factor, are now considered obsolete and are no longer taken seriously. But this difficult and intriguing problem remains. The question can be rephrased in several different ways, some of which could potentially open new approaches to the problem. For example, we could ask why didn’t the cultures of the Ancient Near East, with their grand achievements in many fields of creativity, produce science, philosophy or political theory, in the ways the Greeks did. The answer can be obtained by a deeper analysis of social and cultural conditions in Ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt, and other ancient Eastern cultures. Once we understand that these are hierarchical and bureaucratic societies, dominated by the two pivotal institutions - the ruler’s court and the temple - where the world view was shaped predominantly by the religious and mythical concepts, and where the individuality of any single person (apart from the king himself and his immediate surroundings) was subordinated to a collective mentality, identity and interests, the question seems much easier to answer. But what about the Ancient Greece?

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