Research Bio

Daniela Cammack is a political theorist and historian of political thought specializing in ancient Greek politics and political philosophy. She is best known for her work on Aristotle, Plato, and ancient Greek democracy (in Greek, demokratia). Her most recent research uses philology, political philosophy, and ancient history to rethink the meaning and institutions of demokratia in Athens. She argues that the demos was the crowd that was created when an open public meeting (ekklesia) was held. In demokratia, the demos thus defined ruled over the community's political leaders and thereby over the community as a whole. Far from being a form of self-rule, ancient Greek democracy was the rule of the mass over the socio-political elite. 

Cammack is a Professor of Political Science at UC Berkeley. Her first book, Demos: How the People Ruled Athens, will be published by Princeton University Press in 2026. 

Research Expertise and Interest

history of political thought, democracy, ancient Greece, ancient Rome