Essays on Oligarchy

The Cave

Plato’s The Cave is an allegorical story which Socrates was telling one of his followers Glaucon to explain to him the difference between a philosopher who seeks wisdom and others who aim to remain in ignorance. In the story, Socrates tells of a group of people who have been chained facing an empty wall their entire lives. They are unable to look anywhere, except the wall. Right behind them is an assembly line of items that are constantly going by which are reflected onto the wall by the light which comes from the fire that is behind the ...

Labor acts as a core concept in building a society or nation since it helps people from different lifestyles to work together and achieve a particular goal. It exists in different types with some requiring more skill than the others do, while others tend to be of a higher rank. Despite these differences, it is hard for a particular labor work to exist without the other. Over the years, there have been positive and negative changes towards labor policies, which help improve the current labor structures. One of the major changes is the division of labor in a bid ...

Mexican American women were influenced by various components. Chaperonage refers to the traditional instrument of social control in the United States. Chaperonage existed for many years on the border separating the United States and Mexico. The concept is understood as an indicator of familial oligarchy. The elders in society took a leading role in dictating the life of the young generation (Ruiz 145). Chaperonage referred to the symbolic and actual assertion of familial oligarchy. The Mexican women coming of age in the 1920s and 1930s challenged the authority of the elders in society. Young Mexican-Americans in the United States ...

As a United States citizen, describe what actions you would take to change an aspect of American or California Government

I. Introduction II. Body 1. What it is you want changed and why? I want to change in the way the government takes care of it’s citizens. These days, as a first-world country and only Superpower, I strongly believe that improving socioeconomic (e.g., social and health services) and related services will retain for years to come United States of America’s world status as the best among nations. The equal distribution of life chances, resources, and wealth should be the norm rather than the exception. Because of oligarchy, the US, in reality, is not a wholly democratic nation. ...

Introduction

Athens and Sparta were the two most powerful city-states in the ancient Greek that developed during the Classical Age. Despite being in the same territory, they had very different modes of governance and social lives. They had different forms of governments, but both governments were elected by the people they ruled (Aristotle and Lord 7). Their geographical locations were also different. Sparta was naturally protected by mountains that surrounded it while Athens was built on a hill just below Acropolis (Aristotle and Lord 16). It was difficult to invade Athens because it was almost exposed, hence, making it vulnerable ...

Introduction

Each and every education system in the world is designed to suit the explicit desires of the ruling class and regimes. Evidently, there are nations whose major goals that shape their education towards the pious person. This scenario could be the opposite for other nations whose main goal of education is geared to war-like informed individuals and graduates. Other governments concentrate their systems to produce the industrious man who loves quality in all dimensions that is, taste, character and knowledge.

In reality, Socrates identified four regimes that are revolutionary and dependent on each other with time. These are Timocracy, ...

One of the problems which beset many governments today is corruption. With the era of globalization, countries are finding ways on how to eradicate corruption in order to be globally competitive. Investors will definitely not invest in countries whose governments are known to be corrupt. The question that bugs us now is whether corruption can be eradicated or at least be prevented. This essay hopes to argue that corruption can be prevented and can be removed. Corruption figures worldwide are horrendous. According to the Tax Justice Network, almost $30 trillion have been embezzled in the last 15 years ...

JAPANESE POLITICS, ECONOMICS, AND/OR SOCIETY BETWEEN 1868-1920

JAPANESE POLITICS, ECONOMICS, AND/OR SOCIETY BETWEEN 1868-1920 The period of 1868-1920 saw some changes in the history of Japan. These changes had significant impacts on the political, economic and social aspects of the society of Japan. They influenced the perceptions of individuals during that period concerning political and economic elements of the society. The Japanese developed various attitudes towards these changes and had various thoughts concerning these changes. There was a correlation between the as some of them had significant influences on others. That is; some of the political changes experienced during this time played a role in the transformation ...

Introduction

Plato in his work The Republic dialogues with other great thinkers of his era in an endeavor to develop a perfect governance system. In the dialogue, various elements of the government become prominent. The key elements are justice and leadership of the city. The dialogue seeks debate on and develops a system of governance or a city where there are minimal disputes and perfect leadership. The main argument in the platonic dialogue is that the other governments that Plato approached with varying scorn were ineffective in running a state; on their stead, Plato proposed his version on a republic. His ideas on how the ...

Prophet Muhammad ibn Abd Allah has been able to carry on Islam religion during (ca. 570-632) in western Arabia. After the death of the prophet, caliphs have succeeded him as leaders that claimed political authority over the Muslim community. The period of the caliphate, Islam as a religion has undergone civilization around the world. The Near East period captures the historical view of Islam in its early development. In the historical setting around the sixth century, two empires controlled Arabia these included Byzantine Empire in the west and the Sasanian Empire in the East. Small players in the political ...

Aristotle and Machiavelli have been described as political scientists. The two men have differences in terms of philosophies in relation to the vision they had on the political system. Each man was a product of his own time. Aristotle rose from Greece in the Golden Age while Machiavelli sprouts from Medieval Europe. Their cases gave advice and ideas hold weight in modern political aspects considering their philosophies and outlooks which differ. According to Aristotle, he perceived that the main goal of politics was to deliver a “good life” to the society. Machiavelli’s goal shared the view that the goal ...

Cicero, in his work "De Re Publica" wrote that he didn't install his own, new, invented the terms, but reproduce from memory the conversation between renowned wisest men of his country. In turn, these" famous men": Scipio Africanus, Laelius and others - have repeatedly resorted to the wisdom of the ancient Greek philosophers, referring to Plato and Aristotle. Creativity Plato to the present day remains at the focus of researchers of different directions. For historians in particular, his works are interesting primarily as a reflection of the time period when they were written. Aristotle also belongs to the ...

Book VIII of Plato’s “Republic” revolves around Socrates’ ideas of a flawed state. Written as a dialogue between Socrates and Glaucon then later the former with Adeimantus, the book begins with an explanation of the nature of a true state and true human as discussed in the previous books. Consequently, the dialogues continue with a discussion on four types of governments. Each form of government originates from a certain type of human character. This paper seeks to determine the factors that lead from an oligarchy to a democratic state then later to the rise of a tyranny in that systematic order. Socrates believes an ...

Events of 427 BCE and the growing brutalization that occurred during the war

427 BCE marked the year that the siege of Plataea ended after there was a combined force between Spartan and Theban force. The Spartan and Theban forces then imposed very ruthless penalties on the people that had opposed them. “They brought them again one by one and asked each of them the same question, that is to say, whether they had done Spartans and allies any service in the war; and upon their saying that they had not, took them out and slew them without exception”. The women of the people who had been slain by the Spartans and Theban ...

Today, it can be safely said that there are many forms of government that a country that is aspiring for a charter or a constitutional change can choose from. There is democracy, oligarchy, dictatorship, monarchy, constitutional monarchy, federation, among others. It may also be important to mention that the classification of the different forms of government can be based on different categories. For example, the classification can be based on the distribution of power or structure of power (as in the case of confederations, federations empire, unitary states, and hegemony), the source of power as in the case autocratic, and democratic types ...

Why Nations Faillooks to the past as well as today’s world in order to answer the age old question of why some nations prosper while others fail. Historically some countries’ citizens are considered wealthy, their nations in rich material goods, education and freedoms while and others are perceived a generally poor, or divided by lines of wealth and poverty. It is obvious by looking at more universal factors of culture, weather, and geography that countries with similar external and internal factors can enjoy, or suffer different circumstances. North and South Korea and East and West Germany are evidence ...

When studying philosophy and political science in general, the names of Plato and Aristotle are often mentioned as the most prominent minds and the starters of many philosophical and political doctrines. Both philosophers were concerned with the nature of the State, or the polis, the forms it could take and which one of them could be considered as the best possible regime a society could give itself. According to Bertrand Russell, Aristotelism gave the foundations to forms of government based on reason, while Platonism gave foot to idealism and the establishment of mysticism as a way to control societies . This work ...

Philosophy

The republic vIII is very insightful as far as political power and political organizations are concerned. In the book Plato delves deeply into the various forms of political power and political organization and how one form of political organization can morph into a completely different form of political organization which just so happens to have contrasting ideals and principle. A good example is that of a pure democracy morphing into a complete tyranny. The amazing aspect or rather fact about the republic VII is that the ideas presented in the book are completely in line with the political ongoing all over the ...

Chapter 1:1. Define the State. 2. Define Power Power - is a capability to impose one`s will, to affect the activities and behavior of other people, even in contradiction to their resistance. Political power – is an ability of one individual or a group of individuals to control behavior of citizens and of society on the basis of state aims. 3. Distinguish Authority from Legitimacy Legitimacy – is consent of the people with power, when they voluntarily recognize its right to make binding decisions. Authority – is limited responsibilities and rights, formally granted to anyone in order to let ...

The term oligarchy refers to a form of government where a given small group of people controls a large amount of resources which are enough to influence the national politics. In the Republic of Russia, the term is used to denote a businessman who controls sufficient resources in the country hence is able to also control the politics of the nation. Whether oligarchy is likely to harm the economic development of the country or improve it remains a subject of debate. While others consider it as an engine of Russian economic recovery, opponents claim that the system has drastically weakened the economy of the ...

Introduction

Since the end of World War Two (WW2), the world has attained high achievements in terms of economic, political, social, and cultural development. During the World War 1 and 2, many nations took part in the war and were unable to exploit their natural resources, generate adequate income through economic activities, and establish industries. The period was characterized with political unrest, military invasion, outbreak of contagious and non-communicable diseases, hunger and famine; aspects, which lowered productivity and economic development in the world. However, the end of WW2 marked a turning point in the world’s history as it provided a favorable ...

Question 1

Most non-governmental organizations are movements that are aimed at improving the welfare of individuals. These imply that they improve democratic conditions of the nation by either forcing the government to implement some actions or rejecting others.

Question two

On health this organizations play a large role in providing protection measures mostly through vaccination and immunization on the world’s affected region. The donation of condoms in an effort to reduce spread of HIV by these organizations is a critical example. In an effort to reduce poverty several governments seeks assistance from these organization

Question three

This is a type of government in which the power of ...

George Orwell’s most important books like 1984 and Animal Farm were not really intended to be prophecies for the distant future, but satires of the Stalinist and fascist police states that existed in his own time, but for the most part no longer exist today under the system of global capitalism. He was certainly not a great fiction writer, but was very likely the “the best of modern pamphleteers” (Bloom 1). His characters were totally brutalized by the system of Ingsoc (English Socialism) and this was the type of system he feared might take over the world, although of ...

Today, Assyria is considered as the geographic region located in Asia, where Assyrian Empire and its people lived. Indeed, it is still the same place where most of the Assyrians live. Assyrian kingdom came into being from late 25th BC to 605 BC. Assyrian Empire was located at the centre of the northern Mesopotamia, which is the present day Iraq. At the time, Assyrian Kingdom was highly advanced compared to the other kingdoms. It had civilized agriculture, law, recordkeeping, mathematics and military. In fact, by 100 BC they had shown great interest in zoology and botany. Like Assyria, Persian ...

Introduction

Alexis de Tocqueville and Robert Michel’s remain some of the renowned and proficient scholars who contributed in the development of sociology. They published and wrote numerous sociological materials in pursuit of addressing social constructs and challenges that faced humanity. Their social background, education, and career are some of the pertinent factors that played an integral role in shaping ideas, thoughts and argument brought forth by these scholars. The paper compares and contrast Alexis de Tocqueville and Robert Michel’s and their contribution in sociology discipline.

Alexis de Tocqueville

Alexis Charles Henri de Tocqueville was a renowned French historian, policy maker, and political ...

In a democratic country, citizens participation in policy formation is not only a desirable concern, but rather essential to ensure better governance, formation and implementation of people-centered policies. Therefore, it is of critical significance to interrogate whether citizens can influence local government politics. Citizens engage in various activities in local governments that are vital to the running of these governments. Moreover, these governments are formed through democratic elections. The core values of democracy are participation and accountability. Therefore, activities such as community work, voting, demonstrations, protests, campaigns, payment of taxes and bills, contribution of ideas, volunteering for community or state work ...

The book The Republic is a summary of Socratic dialogues written by Plato. Theses dialogues presents Socratic and Plato’s views on important elements of the state: justice, man of honour, order in the city and state. Besides, dialogues demonstrate ancient perceptions of soul, immortality, the role of philosophy and poetry in the development of society. The Republic consists of 10 books. The eighth, ninth and tenth is a discussion of pros and cons of various existing political regimes and forms of government. According to Socrates and Plato there are five forms of ruling: Timocracy, Oligarchy, Democracy, Aristocracy and Tyranny. ...

In recent news, the Middle East has been reported to have been under conflict as many protests and violence had been recorded against the leaders of their governments. Many of the protests concentrated on pushing for political, social, and economic reform while others wished for their governments to be changed entirely to introduce democracy and an open government. It is notable that the trend of protest and calls for reform had emerged after the successful revolution in Egypt wherein the Egyptian public protested against the continuous ruling of 29 year reigning President Hosni Mubarak. Arguably seen as the beginning ...

Q2) The issue of poverty has long been an issue of concern and debate in this country. Since our founding we have alternately worked to help the poor and blame them for their condition. Discuss, from a liberal point of view, our state government's recent efforts to limit assistance to the poor, specifically the reduction in cash assistance. And then discuss the same issue responding to the same questions below from a conservative point of view. a. Discuss why reform may be necessary b. Discuss wealth inequality in the country as is impacts the issues faced by the poor ...

They worshiped the perfect physic. They achieved the highest pinnacle of architecture and set a standard that people are still following today. They perfected the portrayal of the human figure. Even in their politics they tried for perfection. Yes, the Greeks were idealists. They had a general ideal: an ideal of perfect balance, harmony, and order to create the perfect lifestyle and the perfect art forms. How did the ancient Greeks seek after perfection in all aspects of their civilization? Did they achieve their lofty goals? The Ancient Greeks had a general ideal: an ideal of perfect balance , harmony, and order ...

Democracy is a type of governance that originated in ancient Athens in the sixth century. This word has a number of definitions one of them being a government in which all of the people in that society enjoy an equal amount of power politically. This government in modern society is exercised through the right citizens have to vote for their leader of choice. This, however, does not necessarily mean that there was no form of democracy anywhere else in the world apart from ancient Greece. In fact, research has proven that there existed democratic governance in one form or the other in ...

Political structures From the Classical World

In his classical world, Aristotle identifies different types of political structures based on the Greek history. Usually, political structures are identified based on the relationship civilians have with their leaders. In the Greek history, just before the Peloponnesian War, different kinds of political structures came into existence. Leaders accumulated power and wealth as the nations they ruled increased revenues. The earlier types of political structures, the hereditary monarchs, morphed into tyrannies. The tyrannies led to tension between nations as each leader sought to accumulate more wealth and gain more influence by conquering their neighbors.

According to Aristotle, there exist ...

Aristotle admitted that his argument that some human beings were ‘natural’ slaves was a weak one because he was aware that slaves often did not show the characteristics of meekness, servility and stupidity that was expected, and often rebelled against their masters. This was true in the slave society of Sparta, just as it was in the Roman Republic and the plantation colonies of the America. Much as their masters wished them to be like dumb brutes and animals, and even where slaves put on a pretense of matching this stereotype, the reality was often different. Slavery’s real basis was ...

Political structures From the Classical World

In the classical world, Aristotle focuses on different kinds of political structures. Political structures in the classical world revolved around the relationship between civilians and leaders. Aristotle believed that citizens in a political state should live independent of society but be part of the state’s social structure. There are six types of political structures discussed by Aristotle. These political structures were developed based on the basis of the number of individuals involved in governance and the type of interests those people have in leadership positions.

Aristotle paired the six political structures. One structure represented leadership where leaders had citizens’ ...

Greek philosophers like Socrates, Plato and Aristotle valued reason above all other characteristics and argued that it separated human beings from plants and animals, and like Buddhist philosophy elevated spiritual truths over material concerns. The Greek idealist philosophy was not as completely divorced from the physical universe as Buddhism, however, even though both agreed that the soul was immortal. They also regarded virtue as being its own reward and defined it as seeking higher spiritual and moral values rather than money, power and physical pleasures. Often their ideas have been misunderstood in that they thought the highest level of ...

Restoring democracy in the United States will require major reforms that reduce the power of corporations, elites and special interests in the whole political process. Right now, there is a radical disconnect between the political and economic elites and the needs and interests of the ordinary voters. Most people today realize that the country is in its worse crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s, but government and the political system seem dysfunctional and incapable of dealing with it. Removing the power and control of big money from the political process forever would be the most important step in ...

Aristotle identified friendship as a virtue which helped escape from troubles, deepened thoughts; stimulated prosperity and honorable actions. For Aristotle, it can be a salvation from solitude for elderly people and a mean to avoid errors for youth. But first of all he referred to friendship as equality between parties involved in it. Aristotle distinguished three kinds of friendship based on the object of love. He considered that friendship sprung up when someone was useful, pleasant or good for the other. Herewith, friendship based on utility is incidental and temporary. Older people are prone to make useful friends. On the contrary, ...

Many scholars consider modern democratic government "inevitably' as party government. The attitude that democracy is inevitable is somewhat idealistic according to Philip Slater and Warren G. Bennie of the Harvard Business Review [ CITATION Sla90 \l 1033 ]. In an article posted on HBR’s website entitled, “Democracy is Inevitable,” they write that democracy, ”reflects a state of mind (sic) that is by no means peculiar to business people but characterizes all Americans, if not perhaps all citizens of democracies [ CITATION Sla90 \l 1033 ]. The article further states that democracy has been almost universally embraced because of the idealistic notion that everyone ...