The Republic: Book VIII

Book VIII begins with Socrates reiterating the concept of community and citizenship in a perfect state where education,leisure and warlike activities should be held in common.He also touches upon the notion of common property.Glaucon reminds him that as he has already described the just city Socrates now defines and elaborates upon four unjust constitutions of the city and their human correspondence. He also maintains that society is formed of individuals, if there are five kinds of society then there should be five distinct human correspondences in their response. First of these constitutions is called timocracy. This arises out of aristocracy which is the “just and good” and much admired Cretan or Spartan type of governance in a perfect state. Timocracy is its slightly degraded form as it is the response to Spartan form by a contentious and ambitious man. Ideal society turns into timocracy when the ruling class becomes disunited and social strife begins. The origin of this change in the traditional order lies in the dispute over private ownership (“land and houses”) and private profit (“gold and silver”). Human attributes of a timocratic character is ambition,self will, competitive spirit and imperfect education which leads to an improper class relation skills and a false sense of superiority. A timocratic soul is vulnerable to uncertainty and inner conflict. Timocracy lies between ideal state and Oligarchy. In Oligarchy wealth is the only qualification of merit and governance. Timocracy turns into Oligarchy through the accumulation of capital into private ownership resulting in extravaganza, perversion and dishonoring of the law. Overvaluation of wealth creates undervaluation of goodness. Oligarchy divides the society into two factions : a rich ruling class which is few in numbers and a vast poor section. The number of malcontents rises in the society through a new “drone” class of wrongdoers. A timocratic character turns Oligarchic by the fear of sufferings and losing property. Ambition quickly turns into avarice. An Oligarchic man is laborious, business minded, economical but not morally virtuous, suppresses his inner desires not by reasons rather only because of the compulsion of fear.

Neglect of the poorer section extravagance of wealth and disobedience of the law creates a huge disfranchised section. Criminals and beggars multiply in numbers. Then either by external stimulus or may be even without provocation the poor revolts against the rich. Democracy arises when they defeat the rich, kill, banish or exile the losers and establish a rule of equal civil and legal rights. It can happen through an armed revolt or by a bloodless coup. According to Socrates Democracy is the “most attractive” of all societies because there is diversity,liberty and individual freedom of speech. There is no compulsion of exercising authority (even if one is capable of it) or submitting to it. Although he strictly maintains that it is a rather short sighted constitution,a diverse yet “agreeable anarchy” which treats all its citizen equally regardless of whether they hold the moral and civil qualifications to be treated equally.A democratic character has variety yet lacks moral principles. He is refined but presumptuous, indulges himself in cultivating necessary and unnecessary desires.

As Oligarchy falls due to the excessive desire for wealth, Democracy likewise becomes Tyranny due to the excessive desire for liberty and freedom, at the expense of other merits of Democracy. This eventually undermines the democratic constitution. Liberty falls under the influence of servile and contemptible leadership. Principle of liberty permeates the private sphere. The mind of the citizen becomes sensitive to this changes, citizens start disregarding the law. This is the root of Tyranny. Because supposedly every democratic society falls into three groups. The first one is energetic,freedom loving. They are considered contemptible in Oligarchy,they cannot assume governance. But in Democracy almost all the leaders of the ruling class are drawn from this group. The second group emerges from the mass but are steady enough to consistently make money and climb up the social ladder. The third group is the largest class. They seldom take interest in politics but assembled together (not without the promise of the fulfilment of their individual desires) can form a supreme force. Leaders of this faction rob the wealth of the rich, keep most of that for themselves, distribute the rest to the poor and become popular champions of the mass. A popular leader becomes a tyrant when the temptation for power and violence gets too strong. The mob will do anything he tells them to. He overthrows not only the ruling class but all forms of opposition and dissent and grasps the power of the state. He raises his own private militia. Citizens find out the nature of the “beast” they have bred when he uses violence against his own men who nurtured him. So the tyrant commits parricide.