- Ideas laid out in The Republic (380 BCE)
- Individual human beings are not self-sufficient- can’t acquire all necessities of life working alone
- Thus, form communities in which we work for common goals
- Goals better achieved if each person specializes in a specific role (farmer, carpenter, merchant etc.)- Each person should ONLY perform task for which they are best suited
- Plato proposed human beings (like the metals gold, silver, and bronze) possess different natures that fit each of them to a particular function within the operation of the society
- Thus, perfect society (he named Kallipolis) is one of different classes of people
- Plato’s preferred type of government was aristocracy (rule by the best) but he believed that this would eventually give way to inferior forms of government:
–Timocracy: rule motivated by love of power, not the common good
–Plutocracy: rule motivated by acquisition of wealth & personal gain- creates society divided between rich and poor
–Democracy: the poor rebel and choose a charismatic leader that is unfit to lead, resulting in chaos and disorder
–Tyranny: people turn to a strongman to end disorder. Uses absolute power to enslave subjects
Commonly cited advantages and disadvantages of Platonic politics:
Advantages:
- Openness to women in positions of power makes some believe Plato was ahead of his time in terms of gender equality
- Specialization and division of labour might maximize productivity
- Unavailability of private property to ruling elite removes motive of personal gain in decision making
- Leaders chosen based on merit alone- not wealth, family prestige, personal popularity like in other political systems
Disadvantages
- Some feel it is too utopian; a society that could never be achieved and thus is impractical
- Ideas that people owe complete allegiance to leader and should sacrifice well-being for good of state used to justify 20th century totalitarianism (World War II Germany, USSR)
- People have little say in their role in society- their class is selected for them based on their early education, no role in determining who leads them
- Selective breeding of guardians a similar idea to World War II Germany eugenics- forced sterilizations and killing of people deemed undesirable in the project to build the “master race”
