The Kyklos

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The Kyklos is the classical description of the political cycle of governments in a society. This is first elaborated in Plato's Republic, chapters VIII and IX. Polybius calls it the anakyklosis. [1]

In its simplest form it looks like this: Monarchy turns into aristocracy, which turns into a classical republic, which turns into a democracy, which turns into a tyranny. There are variations and some steps skipped in the cycle. The cycle is said to always end in tyranny. Then the tyrant sets up his son to succeed thus creating a monarchy thus starting all over again.

Socrates begins with the aristocratic state which devolves into the timocratic state "which is termed oligarchy comes next; this is not equally approved, and is a form of government which teems with evils: thirdly, democracy, which naturally follows oligarchy, although very different: and lastly comes tyranny, great and famous, which differs from them all, and is the fourth and worst disorder of a State." [2]

Socrates says that the wheel turns as the character of the man turns. "For as the government is, such will be the man."[3] As the character of the man changes so does the state. The state is only the reflection of the parts that make it up. The whole cannot be different from the parts that make it up. As the man changes so does the state.

The turbelent history of Athens was a good example of the political kyklos that Socrates developed the concept from. It started out as a monarchy; the kings were removed due to effemiancy; then the reforms of Dracon; moved to the reforms of Solon, then moved to pure democracy that during the lifetime of Socrates turned into a tyranny back to a democracy, erupted into a tyranny and back again. There was constant civil war. Solon tried to create a mixed government (a classical republic) in Athens but due to the character of the Ionian Greeks, it failed to take hold. The classical republics of Ancient and classical Greece were often changed to a democracy, the rule of the poor, by the process called synoecism where the upper body, a senate, was dismantled.

Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn points to the kyklos in the history of Rome and Germany: "But any Roman standing on the Palatine Hill and overlooking the Eternal City would see that this city has once been part of a monarchy, then of an aristocratic republic, then of a democratic and finally a plutocratic republic followed by a military dictatorship (Julius Caesar), A Caesarian monarchy (Octavian), a barbarian kingdom, a hierocracy, a kingdom, etc" [4]; Germany went from Bismark, to the Weimar Republic into a tyranny of Adolf Hitler, "This we have seen in Germany, and Plato had visualized with uncanny accuracy what happened, i.e. the transition of the Weimar Republic's democracy to the Third Reich under an extremely popular leader." [5]

In Russia, monarchy moved to 7 years transitional government to tyranny of the Communist Party.

America under the limited monarchy under George III, became a psuedo-republic in 1776 and in 1913 a democracy.

Aristotle remarks that "a constitutional government shifts to democracy and an aristocracy to oligarchy, or to the opposite extremes, that is, aristocracy to democracy". [6]

Aristotle remarks that "the final form of democracy is tyranny." [7]

The only government not to suffer the kyklos for the longest time, Polybius mentioned, was the Spartan republic. Aristotle remarks that "the better the constitution is mixed, the more permanent it is." [8]

After classical times, the Byzantine Empire never suffered the Kyklos; it remained as a monarchy for 1000 years.

Contents

Occurences of the word

  • "Even before theorists were directly acquainted with Polybius, they were well aware that the aim of political science was to combine particular virtues in one universal good, and that until this was done particular virtues were unstable and liable to self-destruction; nor was it necessary to have read Polybius on the anakuklosis to employ the imagery of wheels and cycles." [9]

See also

References

  1. ^ Liberty or Equality, Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn, Christendom Press, Front Royal, Virginia, l993. pg 128.
  2. ^ Plato's Republic, translated by B. Jowett, M.A., Vintage Books, NY. sec 544 pg 292.
  3. ^ Plato's Republic, sec 557, pg 311
  4. ^ Liberty or Equality, pg 162
  5. ^ Liberty or Equality, pg 162
  6. ^ Aristotle, Politics, Loeb Classical Library, Vol 264, #1307a; pg 415.
  7. ^ Aristotle, Politics, #1312b; pg 453
  8. ^ Aristotle, Politics, #1297a; pg 339
  9. ^ J. G.A. Pocock, The Machiavellian Moment: Florentine Political Thought and the Atlantic Republican Tradition (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1975) 116, Questia, 31 Aug. 2007 [1]


References

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