Ancient History Seminar: "Euergetism"

Please note that we have changed the location for this lecture!

Lecture by Roland Oetjen, Kiel University.

Providing public goods
At the end of the fourth century BC, a new institution emerged in the polis world: euergetism, as it is called. Rich citizens, and in some cases non-citizens and Hellenistic kings, started providing, at their own expense, public goods or contributing financially to their provision on what ancient historians consider a voluntary basis.

States and coercion
Since a consumer would never pay for public goods but always free-ride on the contributions of others, and the market therefore fails to supply them, public goods are typically provided by the state, which can employ coercion to exact contributions from consumers.

Motivation to contribute
The question, which Dr. Oetjen will address at this lecture, is how the polis managed to get around the free-rider problem and motivate their citizens to contribute to the provision of public goods without the use of coercion.

The event will take place on November 11^th 2015, at 2.15 pm in room 12.3.39, KUA 2, Karen Blixens Vej 4, Copenhagen. The lecture is part of the Ancient History Seminar series and is organized by Vincent Gabrielsen and his 1st-year class students. All interested are welcome.