3 ms·
Classical Greece was a cultural diaspora of politically distinct city-states, which experienced very turbulent politics, swinging between systems of oligarchy,
by jacques_chester 10y ago
Classical Greece was a cultural diaspora of politically distinct city-states, which experienced very turbulent politics, swinging between systems of oligarchy, tyranny and democracy.
In fact, the Greek example that is often pointed to as an example of how not to do it. Even by the Greeks, who watched the dynamics up close. See, for example, Plato's fondness for tyranny of him and his buddies over democracy.
- abecedarius 10y agoThe Greeks had turbulent politics both before and after the democratic period. I'm kind of impressed by the resilience of Athenian democracy. Plato's a great example of how much better antidemocratic views seem to have survived subsequent transmission. Whenever we read historical judgments instead of facts we need to keep in mind we're seeing what managed to keep getting copied over almost two millennia until the printing press, almost all of the time under ideologies where the prince's word was law.