![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Democratically ruled Athenians, for instance, had a different character from oligarchically ruled Corinthians. Their respective merits were hotly discussed from the time of Herodotus (3.80–2) onwards, even if some states, notably Sparta, a totalitarian society much admired for its discipline, stability and prowess in war, fell into none of these categories.ĭifferent societies, it was observed, tend to produce different kinds of people. ![]() Varied as the Greek states were, and subject to further variation by reform or revolution, they fell into three main classes – monarchy or rule by one man, described approvingly as ‘kingship’ or disapprovingly as ‘tyranny’ oligarchy or rule by a few, politely called ‘aristocracy’ or rule by the best and democracy or rule by the entire adult male citizen body, known to later detractors as ‘ochlocracy’ or mob-rule. The sheer variety of constitutions known in Greece – Aristotle and his school were to produce monographs on no less than 158 of them – meant that it was hardly possible there, as it may well have been in Egypt or Mesopotamia, to assume that there is only one way in which to run a society. The term ‘politics’ in fact derives from ‘ polis’ the Greek noun for ‘city-state’. Philosophers: metaphysics, ethics and political theoryĮuropean political philosophy had its first home in Greece, in a society made up of numerous small city-states, each with its own laws, customs and constitution. ![]()
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