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CLOSEThe research cluster “Politics: Power and Institutions” encompasses projects devoted to one of the oldest and most fundamental fields of historical inquiry—political history. Particular emphasis is placed on the study of major political entities—city-states, kingdoms, empires and their colonies, as well as modern nation-states—focusing primarily on issues of political organization, institutional structures, and the sources of political authority.
Topics of special interest include, for the period of Antiquity, the Athenian Hegemony, the Achaemenid Empire, the Kingdoms of Cyprus, the Macedonian Kingdom, the Thracian ethne, and the Roman Empire; for the Middle Ages, the Byzantine Empire, the Latin states established after 1204, and the Republic of Venice, especially its dominions in the Greek world; and, for the post-1453 period, the Ottoman Empire and the modern Greek state, examined through its successive constitutional transformations—from monarchy to kingdom to republic—including its various dictatorial regimes.
Although political history has traditionally been viewed as a primarily descriptive discipline, research conducted at the IHR goes well beyond the straightforward narration of political and military events in a chronological framework. It extends to questions of fiscal policy, public administration, diplomatic relations, mechanisms of power and ideological control, electoral processes, and patterns of forced migration and displacement. In addition, the cluster explores long-term phenomena such as constitutional changes, political transitions and interconnections, as well as non-state entities, including sanctuaries, ecclesiastical and monastic institutions, and political parties.