Athenian Democracy and Distrust

The Currency of Politics is a major contribution to the history of economic thought, a history too often neglected by political theorists. Especially important are Eich's arguments about the fragility of trust, and the way in which money both enables and undermines such trust. In his words, monetary trust does not simply imply the enforcement of existing contracts but the realization of a more fundamental, and more equitable, social contract that requires a sharing of sacrifices and benefits. ... In a democratic society monetary trust must be tied to a negotiation over justice (18). In discussing Aristotle and the Greek world, Eich retrieves claims about the role of currency in contributing to reciprocal justice, especially if not exclusively in democracies. Money is a tool of reciprocity and equality - coinage can enable the spread of a specifically egalitarian political ideology (37). Money enables us to recognize injustices, and possibly, amend them. Currency contains within itself the necessary condition for its own improvement (27).