Thursday, January 6, 2011

... Monarchy -> Aristocracy -> Democracy -> Dictatorship ...

We are well past Aristocracy, near the end of Democracy. Be careful what you wish for.

An excerpt from Chapter ten of The Lessons of History by Will and Ariel Durant, condensed in Johnsoncius.PDF, Appendix C. II.


3 comments:

The Arthurian said...

Branko Milanovic, reviewing “The invisible hand?: How market economies have emerged and declined since AD 500” (Oxford University Press, 2016, 330 pages) by Bas van Bavel, says van Bavel's theory does not describe a "fully" cyclical pattern:

"Bavel’s theory is not fully cyclical, in the way that (say) Plato‘s was where each political system led to another one, in an endless cycle. In Bavel, after the relative fall, the economies do not seem to recover..."

The Arthurian said...

Here's the link!

http://glineq.blogspot.com/2017/04/a-theory-of-rise-and-fall-of-economic.html

The Arthurian said...


From The economics behind the demise of democracy by Steve LeVine at Axios:

"Unforced by coup or war, one developed country after another has chosen an authoritarian style of democracy over the last two years, an all-but unforeseen shift that has left more mainstream leaders scrambling to understand it and turn back time."

All but unforeseen? But even Plato foresaw it!

And this:

"Economics ultimately underpins the turmoil, leading scholars tell Axios..."

Yep, exactly.