Explain Plato's concept of democracy.
Ans. Origin of Democracy
About the origin of democracy Plato said, "So democracy, I supose, comes into being when the poor conquer, and kill some of the other party and banish others, and share out the citizenship and government equally with the rest; and the offices in it are generlly settled by lot".
Variety and Richness in Democracy :
According to Plato, democracy produces variety and riches. As he says "First of all, then, they are free men; the city is full of freedom and liberty of speech, and men in it may do what they like".
"Where there is liberty of action, it is clear that each man would arrange his own private life in it just as it pleased him."
"Consequently, I suppose, all varieties of men would be produced under this system more than anywhere else".
"In fact, this is the most beautiful of constitutions. It is decked out with all sources and conditions of manners, as a robe of many colours is embroidered with all the flowers of the field, and what could be more beautiful."
Because of this liberty: All sorts of constitutions are there; and if anyone wants to fit up a city, as we ahve been doing, it is only necessary for him to go to a city governed by a democracy, and choose whatever fashion of constitution pleases him, as if he had come to a bazaar of constitutions; then, having picked out his pattern, he can make his city accordingly."
"These things, then, and other such like them are in democracy; a delightful constitution it would be, as it seems: no governor and plenty of colour; equality of a sort, distributed to equal and unequal alike.
The Democratic Man
Describe the democratic man, Plato said, "A young man brought up as we described, in parsimony and ignorance, gels a taste of the drones, honey, and finds himself among wild beasts fiery and dangerous, who are able to provide pleasures of every variety and complexity and condition: there you must see the beginning of his inward change from the oligarchic to the democratic."
"As the city then was changed by the alliance coming from without to assist one party within, like to assist like, so the young man changes by a crowd of desires from without coming to assist one of the parts within him, a crowd akin and aiike."
"And if another alliance comes from somewhere to assist the oligarchic part in the man-from the father, perhaps, or others of the family, who warn and reproach him-then there is faction and anti faction and a battle ensures within him against himself."
"And sometimes, I suppose, the democratic part retreats before the oligarchic, some of the desires are destroyed, and some are banished; a little shame comes up in the young man's soul, and it is brought into Order again." "Then they draw him back to the same associations, and they spawn secretly and breed multitudinous brood."
"So in the end, I think, they storm the fortress of the young man's soul, and they find it empty of learning and beautiful practices and without words of truth, which are indeed the best sentinels and guardians in the minds of men whom the gods love."
"No liars and impostors, I suppose, false words and opinions, charge up and occupy the place of the others in such a man." "So then the young man comes back among these lotus-, eaters and makes his home there openly; if any support comes from his family for the thrifty part of his soul, those bragging words bar up the gates of the royal castle in him and will not let in even these allies, nor even receive any embassy of words from his older friends in private life, a battle follows, and they win; shame they dub silliness and cast it forth, a dishonoured outlaw; temperance they dub cowardice, trample it under foot and banish it; they persuade the man that moderation and decent spending are clownishness and vulgarity, and drive them out beyond the border by the help of a gang of unprofitable desires.
"And so having purged and swept clean of such things the soul of this man, who is now in their power and being initiated into their grand mysteries they proceed at once to bring home again violence and anarchy and licentiousness and immodesty with a long train of attendants, resplendent with garlands about their heads; and they glorify them and call them by softnames - violence is now good breeding, anarchy is liberty, licentiousness is magnificence, immodesty is courage. There, you see more or less how the young man who was being trained among necessary desires is ied into the emancipation and release of unnecessary and unprofitable pleasures."
"And so he lives, I think, after this, spending money and pains and study upon unnecessary pleasure no less than the necessary. But if he is fortunate and not too dissolute, if as he grows older the great riot abates a bit, he receives back again parts of the exiles, and does not yield himself wholly to the intruders; he carries on his pleasures, maintaining if you please a sort of equality among them, he gives over the rule of himself to any pleasure that comes along, as if it had gained that by lot, until he has had a ought, then to another again, without disrespect for any, but cherishing all equally."
"And not a word of truth, does he receive into the fortress of his soul, he will not even let it into the guardhouse. If anyone tells him that some pleasures belong to beauliful and good desires, others to those which are vile; some he should practice and respect, others he should chasten and enslave -at all such warnings, he nods his head up and ways, 'Not at all, they are all equal, and to be respected equally."
"And so, he spends his life, every day indulging the desire that comes along; now he drinks deep and tootles on the pipes, then again he drinks water and goes in for slimming; at limes it is bodily exercise, at times idleness and complete carelessness, ,sometimes he makes a show of studying philosophy. Often he appears in politics, and jumps up to say and do whatever comes into his head. Perhaps the fame of a military man makes him envious, and he tries that; or a lord of finance-there he is again. There is no discipline or necessity in his. life; but he calls it delightful and free and full of blessings, and follows it his days."
"So you see, I think is a variegated man, full of all sorts of conditions and manners, this is the beautiful, many-coloured man exactly like that city, one whose life many a men and many a women would envy, having in himself patterns of innumerable of constitutions and characters." bied
"Very well, let such a man be ranked besides our democracy as the democratic man rightly so called."
"So, then, oligarchy was destroyed by the insatiate desire of riches, and disregard of everything else for the sake of money-making."
www.manipursana.in