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Question

What kind of government does Plato recommend in The Republic?

Update:

希望用英文回答 謝謝

Answer 1

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Plato's first choice of government is a monarchy ruled by a philosopher king. Unfortunately philosopher kings are hard to find.

His second choice is a timocracy since it is the closest to his idea of the Ideal State. People in timocracys are dedicated to the state and are just. However, timocracies typically have a strong military at the center. An example of this would be Sparta.

The third choice is an oligarchy. Plato does not like oligarchies because to be a ruler one must be rich. Oligarchies are led by the rich and this does not contribute to the good of the state as a whole.

Democracy is next. Plato says that people in a democracy often abuse their freedom and equality, and this leads to destruction. The people often confuse the necessary things in life with the unnecessary; their needs from their wants are mixed. Also, rulers are usually wealthy but this is not quite as extreme as in an oligarchy. It takes money to run a campaign.

The worst form of government, according to Plato, is tyranny. Tyrants become slaves to the worst part of themselves, which is greed. In a tyranny everyone suffers. The common people become poor and the tyrant becomes taken over by greed.

Ironically, a monarchy (the Ideal State) is most similar to a tyranny, but they are on opposite ends of the list! This is because the philosopher kings who rule monarchies are not self-centered but are dedicated to the good of the state. Tyrants, however, are greedy. This is one reason that it is hard to find a philosopher king

Source(s): wikipedia