Introduction
Since the dawn of time, people have felt the need to establish a political system to maintain peace and order. These systems differed from one region to another depending on people’s beliefs, culture, and ideologies. Some examples of systems that have been applied throughout the ages include Plato’s ‘Republic,’ Moses from ‘Exodus,’ Pericles from Thucydides’ ‘History of the Peloponnesian War’ and Lao Tzu in ‘Tao Te Ching.’ Each of these individuals had certain beliefs and morals which influenced what they believed to be a good political system. An example was Lao Tzu a scholar and who was a keeper of records at the Chinese court. Despite his high position, he left the court due to the level of moral decadence and pursued another region fitting his moral principles. In these systems, there were differences in methods of governance such as democracy, monarchy, aristocracy, tyranny, and oligarchy. These rulers imposed their beliefs on citizens and the way they ruled determined how well the citizens would flourish or perish. In this essay, I will be comparing the different political systems between Plato, Moses, and Pericles.
Plato's Theory of an Ideal Society
Plato was a Greek philosopher and a student of Socrates. He began the academy in Athens, an institution of higher learning. According to Plato’s theory, an ideal society is one whose foundation is based on good principles and good leadership. The Republic by Plato is a Socratic dialogue about justice by assessing a just man’s character and the order of our civil government. It is made up of Socrates discussing the meaning of justice with various people. Plato believed that the perfect society is one where the citizens live harmoniously without fear of attacks or material possessions. He was a strong emphasizer on the concept that a philosophical leader was the ideal person since he believed the wise should be rulers and the ignorant should be ruled over.
Plato's Classification of Society and Roles
He also believed that society was made up of three types of people; the producers who were farmers and craftsmen, the auxiliaries who were soldiers and the guardians who were rulers of the political class. It was important for members of the different categories to stick to their roles for an organized society to be established and harmony to prevail. It is a similarity also seen in Moses’ Exodus. During the Pharaoh’s reign, the Egyptians believed their deities had absolute power and Pharaoh was one of them (Cole 43). His wishes had to be followed, and everyone carried out their specific duties with no complaints. Failure to do this led to harsh consequences.
Pericles' Democratic Governance
Plato believed that a good leader should exhibit the following traits; wisdom, justice, restraint, and resilience to govern the people well. These traits were portrayed in the political governance of Pericles from Thucydides’ ‘History of the Peloponnesian War.’ Pericles was a decisive and stern leader of Athens who believed in himself and his way of ruling. He did not let other peoples’ thoughts come in the way of what he wanted to achieve. He ruled and prevailed at a time known as Athens’ Golden Age, a period when Greece was divided into two leagues. He made democratic reforms that impacted his society positively. One of these reforms was when he decided to make way for the state officers to be paid since men were not paid for their services to the state (Baltes 39). In so doing, he enabled the poor citizens of the state, who would have otherwise been unable to give their services, earn a living.
Pericles' Wise Decisions and Leadership
The policy he created and implemented earned him great popularity among the citizens of Athens, a clear indication that he was an innovative and brave leader who can serve his people. He showed great wisdom during the looming war between Athens and Sparta. He chose to apply tactics that would convince Sparta on the futility of war. The tactics he used were; avoiding confrontations with the Spartans on land, using the navy ships discreetly to obtain food, keeping the people within Athens’ walls and avoiding attempts to expand the empire during the war to save on resources. All these were in an attempt to preserve the people’s lives and avoid the war which would have been catastrophic.
Differences in Moses' Laws and Plato's Republic
Some of the differences between Moses’ Exodus and Plato’s Republic laws are that Moses’ commandments came from a divine power while Plato’s show no reference to a deity. Moses led the Israelites from Egypt through God’s guidance. They then traveled through the desert to Mount Sinai, where God gave them the Ten Commandments which is unique in itself since gods at that time were not known to make contractual agreements with humans. Even if humans followed a god’s law, they were not to expect any benefits. Here, God is seen as making an agreement with the people and promising to stick to His side of the deal. It also shows that Moses’ government was a theocracy where God had all the power and could make and change laws as He wanted (Schmid 76). Any rebellion resulted in harsh consequences such as death for example when the Israelites worshipped the idol god, and they were forced to drink molten gold.
Plato's Monarchy and Moses' Theocracy
Plato’s Republic was a monarchy where citizens were not involved in decision making on matters affecting them. He believed those who were intellectually superior should make the decisions. It was one of the ways to ensure the society was a harmonious one. Plato also believed in a strict social class structure made up of only three classes while in Moses’ time there were no classes among the Israelites (Yadav 25). They were all equal in their service to their deity. In Plato’s Republic, he speaks of no deity, so his religion is unknown while Moses speaks of only one God. However, some researchers believe that Plato derived some of his ideas of the perfect world from already existing laws such as those of Moses. Moses lived around eleven and a half centuries prior to Plato, and some of the laws may have spread to Greece as the Jews traveled the world since they were scattered everywhere.
Contrasting Pericles' Democracy and Plato's Ideal State
Plato and Pericles also had some differences in their ideologies of political systems. Pericles believed in a democratic rule where every citizen was entitled to participate in the politics of the state while Plato was against this. Plato thought the ideal government to be that of a monarchy or an oligarchy as long as it holds to the structure as described in the 'Republic.' According to Pericles, in democratic law, people are not restricted by their social status, class or poverty rather by the fact that they are citizens (Evans 102). Therefore, people were free to do as they please, freedom to participate in public affairs and tolerance for those who did other things as long as there was respect for the law. Another difference is spotted in the division of labor and the role of citizens. In Pericles’ democratic society, citizens who did not partake in public life and politics were considered to be of no use. In spite of citizens having their private lives and other businesses, Pericles felt the need for every person to participate in making a judgment over public matters.
Plato's View on Ruling and Women's Role
Plato disagrees with this notion that any ordinary citizen can partake in decision making and instead approves of a group of rulers to be tasked with the role of legislation. He also strongly disagrees with the idea that everyone should take part in politics but rather has proposed a radical society where the division of labor and roles are clearly outlined among individuals. The two leaders also did not share the same thought on the role of women in society. In Plato’s view of an ideal republic, women are considered to have the same roles and functions as men and should have the same education as men. However, this is still in the confines of women being selected for specific tasks depending on their inherent nature.
Conclusion
Political systems varied over different times and from one location to another, but Plato’s remains to be one of the best ones. The Exodus laws are great, but they require one to follow a deity with absolute power over you. Pericles democratic laws did not value citizens who did not participate in decision making. In Plato’s society, people’s roles are defined, and everyone knows the leaders. They make decisions for the people with the society’s progress in mind. The community also lives harmoniously with justice being implemented at all times.
Works Cited
Baltes, Matthias. "Is the Idea of the Good in Plato’s Republic beyond Being?." Studies in Plato and the Platonic tradition. Routledge, 2017. 21-42.
Cole, R. Alan. Exodus. Vol. 2. InterVarsity Press, 2016.
Evans, Nancy. Civic rites: Democracy and religion in ancient Athens. Univ of California Press, 2010.
Schmid, Konrad. Genesis and the Moses story: Israel's dual origins in the Hebrew Bible. Eisenbrauns, 2010.
Yadav, Kripa Shankar. Plato's Republic. Radha Publications, 2015.
