Classical Tyranny Essay ⋆ Political Science Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

In modern society, a tyranny is often defined as a political system in which one or a few persons hold power, opposed to a democracy, where many share power. The two most common representations of modern tyranny are Nazi Germany and the communist Soviet Union. Historically, tyranny has been present in human society at least since the beginning of recorded history and likely well before. Western ideas concerning classical tyranny were first formed in ancient Greece and tyranny, as it is understood in the modern world, was not necessarily evil.

Classical Greece: Athens And Sparta

Generally, the classical period in Greece lasted from approximately 500 to 323 BCE, with the death of Alexander the Great. During this period, Athens, Sparta, Thebes and finally, Alexander’s Macedonia alternately ruled Greece.

Prior to the classical period, Athens was ruled under a tyranny. The Greek tyrannos began as a term for a military leader and subsequently meant a ruler who took power neither by heredity nor by constitutional authority, but typically by military power. In approximately 510 BCE, the Athenian tyranny was overthrown with the help of King Cleomenes I of Sparta. Athens and Sparta then warred with each other, whereupon the Athenians instituted what is now called a democracy. The period that ensued is commonly called Greece’s golden age. Other city-states also adopted democracy as a form of government, though Sparta did not. Athens and Sparta fought as allies in several conflicts before they once again warred with one another. Sparta achieved victory in 404 BCE and established control over Athens—ending its democracy—and the rest of Greece. Fighting continued and power shifted several times over the following years, and Alexander the Great held sole power until his death in 323 BCE. The classical understanding of tyranny extends from this period in ancient Greek history.

Tyrants In Greek Philosophy

Greece spent much of its existence under the rule of tyrants, even though conventional wisdom applauds the Greek city-states for the development of democracy. Prior to Greece’s classical period, a single ruler usually ruled Greek city-states; in Athens this system was called an archon. Over time, the city-states became oligarchical aristocracies with occasional rule by powerful figures who imposed their own wills upon the people. This is the quintessential example of a tyrant in classical politics. However, this did not mean that a “tyrant” was necessarily undesirable, as some tyrants used their power for the good of the people. The great ancient Greek philosophers, however, revolutionized the understanding of the word for subsequent millennia.

Plato (427–347 BCE) advocated, in his later work The Republic, a society and political system that mandated three very strict classes: the merchant class, the military class, and the philosopher-kings. The philosopher-kings obtained their position by merit along with their intellectual and philosophical abilities. Plato considered them the best-equipped people to discern truth and, thus, to rule justly. Plato’s philosopher-king might be considered a benevolent tyranny, in the modern sense, as one or a few persons held power. However, under Plato’s system, the philosopher-kings would not be tyrants in the classical sense, as they would take power in accord with the political system and still rule according to the law. For Plato, the true tyrant would be the ruler who ruled by whim and personal desire, as military tyrants tend to do, and not according to truth, which should be reflected by the law.

Plato’s pupil Aristotle (384–322 BCE), in his Politics, expounded on the virtues of government. For Aristotle, one of the worst forms of government was unrestrained democracy. An unrestrained democracy was a society that held no firm values or principles. The desires of the mob held sway. Truth was not one of the goals of a democracy thus understood. For it was from such a democracy that a tyrant, who would pander to the whims of the public, would arise. For Aristotle, an aristocracy was a much more stable and better form of government and more prone to produce a society ruled by virtue and moderation.

Conclusion

These classical philosophical reflections on tyranny helped give the term, originally neutral, the strong pejorative sense it still carries today. Both Plato and Aristotle emphasized that the virtuous ruler ruled by law and for the good of the people and tried to distinguish their enlightened philosopher-kings or aristocrats from classical Greek tyrants. Modern proponents of democracy, however, have often attached that same negative connotation—originally given to a ruler who acts according to whims, not the truth—to any politics in which power is concentrated in the hands of a single person or a small group of persons.

The assumption made by the proponents of democracy is that, as Lord Acton famously said, “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” In other words, if a few people have power, they will inevitably use it to their advantage, and not for the common good. Yet, at the same time, political theorists have worried throughout the modern era that democracy itself can, paradoxically, become a kind of tyranny if the masses vote according to their whims and preferences and not according to the common good. Aristotle’s perceptive analysis of the transition from pure democracy to tyranny remains relevant, even to the most iconic of modern tyrannies—including Nazi Germany, which began through the democratic election of the National Socialist Party.

Bibliography:

The Complete Works of Aristotle, vol. 2, edited by Jonathan Barnes. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1984.
Nichomachean Ethics in The Complete Works of Aristotle, edited by Jonathan Barnes. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1984.
The Collected Dialogues of Plato, edited by Edith Hamilton and Huntington Cairns. New York: Pantheon, 1961.
Pomerory, Sarah B. Ancient Greece: A Political, Social, and Cultural History. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.
Schall, James V. “A Reflection on the Classical Tractate on Tyranny: The Problem of Democratic Tyranny.” American Journal of Jurisprudence 41 (1996): 1–19.
Strauss, Leo. On Tyranny, rev. ed. New York: Free Press, 1991.

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