More Centralized Delian League

Some people have said that if Athens won the Peloponnesian War the expanded Athenian Hegemony would not survive. So how is it possible for the new, larger Delian league to become more centralized so as to remain firmly in Athens' control.
 
Some people have said that if Athens won the Peloponnesian War the expanded Athenian Hegemony would not survive. So how is it possible for the new, larger Delian league to become more centralized so as to remain firmly in Athens' control.
I think the biggest problem OTL with the Delian league was that it was TOO centralized and too much under Athenian control.

It started out as a league, and ended up as an Athenian Empire. This meant that the constituant cities had far less interest in supporting it.

IMO, what you need is a more DEcentralized, federal league...
 
I think the biggest problem OTL with the Delian league was that it was TOO centralized and too much under Athenian control.

It started out as a league, and ended up as an Athenian Empire. This meant that the constituant cities had far less interest in supporting it.

IMO, what you need is a more DEcentralized, federal league...
And then we run into the problem that greek Poleis were incredibly xenophobic, often not even giving citizenship to other Greeks who live in the city since many generations. Not likely to provide the needed mindset for a successful (con)federation. It would probably be better if to take another league, starting it with several small poleis that unite against the bigger ones & foreigners and let is slowly expand.
 
And then we run into the problem that greek Poleis were incredibly xenophobic, often not even giving citizenship to other Greeks who live in the city since many generations. Not likely to provide the needed mindset for a successful (con)federation. It would probably be better if to take another league, starting it with several small poleis that unite against the bigger ones & foreigners and let is slowly expand.
I don't know. I think the Delian league might be the best of a poor lot for this, given Greek history. There would definitely have to be a prolonged external threat (or series of them) to make them hang together (so they don't hang separately, as Franklin put it), and there'd have to be SOMETHING to keep Athens from trying to take over.

It would be tricky, very definitely.

In terms of citizenship - I can see a possibility of 'League citizenship' that gets accepted as a sort of second-class citizenship in all the League cities - trading right, marriage rights, but no right to vote (in e.g. Athens) and perhaps no right to long term residency (10 years max?).
 
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