POLSCI 3VV3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Timocracy
6 Feb 2018
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Document Summary
Represents the way some athenians thought about democracy. Both plato and aristotle had experience of democracy. After the spartans defeated the athenians at the end of the peloponnesian. War in 404 bce, the spartans allowed the athenians to recreate a version of their old institutions. 399: socrates was put to death under democratic procedures. Aristotle: first comparative political scientist, went around to survey a variety of constitutions, including democracies and compare them. We don t elect captains on a democratic basis, we shouldn t elect politicians in the same way. A very strong historical argument written after the defeat of athens and the death of socrates (c. 380 - republic). This argument goes on at two levels: the city and the soul (psyche). The city is a stand-in for the individual (the soul). Kallipolis (the wise rule), timocracy (the strongest/military rule, honour rules), oligarchy (the rich rule, wealth rules), democracy (the many rule), tyranny (dictatorship).
