Although the number of democracies around the world has increased dramatically over the last 150 years, the process of transition to democracy remains imperfectly understood.  Indeed, from a certain perspective, the mere fact of transition is potentially puzzling, because although it involves (by definition) a reduction in the power of elites, most democratic transitions have been accomplished with little violence.  In this workshop, we will review several prominent economic models of the democratic transition.  We will focus on models in which an enfranchised group expands rights to a disenfranchised group voluntarily, because the enfranchised group expects to be made better off.  We will examine how well these models explain the rise of democracy in democracy’s birthplace:  ancient Greece.  We will also examine factors that make democracies durable.  The ancient Greeks were very aware of the possible instability of democratic regimes, and engaged in remarkable efforts to design institutions that rendered their systems stable.  Throughout the workshop, we will explore implications for understanding democracy in the modern world.