Josiah Ober

““To be courageous is to expose yourself to risk, danger, maybe even harm,” Ober said. “That doesn't mean you have to march off to war, as an Athenian citizen would, but it does mean that you should be willing to express a view that may be unpopular, that you open yourself to views that you might find really challenging and hard to accept. That takes real courage.”https://news.stanford.edu/stories/2025/04/josiah-ober-civic-education-democracy”

“Democracy demands much from us as citizens because, unlike autocracies, there is no boss but ourselves. Citizens govern with one another not over one another. Consequently, this relationship between citizens survives only through civic bargaining. Kings and oligarchs dictate laws and prescribe cultural norms with little need to negotiate or bargain with their subjects. (2024)https://www.policyed.org/policy-stories/civic-bargain-how-democracy-survives/video”