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Remember: Aristotle was a propagandist for Phillip of Macedon, who overthrew the Athenian constitution. This is the victors commenting on the defeated.
by pyuser583 4y ago
Remember: Aristotle was a propagandist for Phillip of Macedon, who overthrew the Athenian constitution.
This is the victors commenting on the defeated.
- MichaelZuo 4y agoPlato, who predates the conquest, made a broadly similar claim. Aristocracy > Timocracy > Oligarchy > Democracy > Tyranny and repeat.
- pyuser583 4y agoMachiavelli turned the argument on its head. He said the Roman Republic was great because it had all three forms of government at the same time: the consuls were “monarchs”, the senate was “aristocratic”, and the people/tribune of the plebes were the “democracy.” This is where the modern idea of separation of powers comes from.
- thom 4y agoIt's hard to prove this, but it's very likely he just took this idea from Polybius.
- pyuser583 4y agoOooh interesting … Some searching brings up this: https://jhiblog.org/2021/03/04/machiavellis-debt-to-polybius/ https://jhiblog.org/2021/03/04/machiavellis-debt-to-polybius.... I’ll have to read and digest later.