Tyranny Germinates from Democracy

Socrates: O cherished companion! In what manner does Tyranny appear? It is indisputable that this alteration originates from Democracy. 

Adeimantos: It is indisputable. 

Socrates: Does not Tyranny originate in the selfsame manner from Democracy, as Democracy from Oligarchy?

Adeimantos: How?

Socrates: What was proposed as the good of Oligarchy, and according to what was it constituted? Was it not, with the objective of becoming extremely affluent?

Adeimantos: Yes

Socrates: An insatiable desire for affluence and a neglect of other issues of significance. It is through attention to the acquisition of affluence that self is destroyed.

Adeimantos: This is a verity.

Socrates: And that which Democracy names as the good, an insatiable thirst of it likewise destroys self?

Adeimantos: Promulgate what this self denominates as the good?

Socrates: Liberty. For this, we perceive as most beautiful in a democratic polity. And that for the object of liberty, one who is absent from intervention, will opt to reside in it over all alternatives.

Adeimantos: Liberty is mentioned on numerous occasions.

Socrates: Does not this insatiable desire for liberty and the neglect of other issues of significance affect this polity too, and prepare it to require a tyrant?

Adeimantos: How?

Socrates: When a polity, which has appointed officials who show malice, exists under a Democracy with intense appetency for liberty, becomes intoxicated with the undiluted medicinal properties of liberty beyond necessity, it punishes the governors when they are not entirely cooperative in affording abundant liberty, accusing them of being corrupt and under the influence of the Oligarch.

Adeimantos: They do these things.

Socrates: Then they abuse those who are obedient to governors who show malice, as nugatory and willing slaves, and, both in private and in public, commend and honour governors who resemble subjects, and subjects who resemble governors. Is it not through necessity that the summit of liberty arrives in such a polity?

Adeimantos: How could it possibly not?

Socrates: Then must not this congenital anarchy, O companion, descend into private families, and in the end extend to the feral animals?

Adeimantos: How can we assert these things?

Socrates: Just as if the patriarch should adapt himself to be similar to his progeny, and of the one hand becomes afraid of his son, and the son adapts himself to be similar to his patriarch, and of the other hand neither reveres nor remains humble towards his parents, so that he may be free, as if a resident-alien were to be equalled with a citizen, and a citizen with a resident-alien, and, in similar manner, to a visitant.

Adeimantos: Yes, this is how it occurs.

Socrates: These things and other things of a similar nature occur. The didactic instructor in such a polity is phobic and aims to please the students. The students despise their instructors and their assistants in like manner. And, in general, juveniles are similar in appearance to those of more advanced age, competing with them both in reasoning and actions. Those of more advanced age share a chair with the juvenile, are facetious, show plenty of pleasantry, mimicking the juvenile, so that their appearance is not unpleasant and despotic.

Adeimantos: Entirely.

Socrates: O companion, how extreme is the liberty of the multitude in such a polity as this, when the male and female enslaved are no less free than those who purchased them, and how great an equality and liberty the females have with their males, and males with their females, of which we are oblivious and do not speak.

Adeimantos: Then should we not, according to Aischylos, speak no matter what comes upon our mouth?

Socrates: Of course, and accordingly, I speak as follows, concerning wild animals, surprisingly those under the care of humans, how much liberty they have in such a polity compared with the alternative, it is not easily believed by the unacquainted. Even the dogs, according to the proverb, have a similar appearance to their mistresses, and the horses and donkeys are accustomed to amble up and down with liberty and impose on humans they encounter on the road, unless the humans extract themselves. A multitude of things thus occur when one is full of liberty.

Adeimantos: You speak of my personal dreams. Self has often suffered [pathetically] when passing in the direction of the agricultural regions.

Plato, On Polity VIII (The Republic, extract from Book VIII),

New English Recensional Translation by The Editor of ClassicalPhilosophy.org, Chichester, England, 2025.