Plato and the Democratic Roots of the Tyrannical Man

The book of Ivan Jordović Plato and the Democratic Roots of the Tyrannical Man: Studies on mirror of princes, antidemocratic thought and typology of tyrants in classical Greece has recently been published by the Institute for Balkan Studies SASA. A criticism frequently levelled at Plato is that his perception of the nature of democracy is marked by prejudice and a philosophical approach to the extent that his interpretation of historical facts and political reality is far too free. Even though such objections are not entirely groundless, the goal of this book is to show that Plato, in developing his theory of the origin of the tyrannical man, did have a profound insight into the evolution of Athenian democratic ideology and that it influenced his critique of democracy much more than generally assumed. The focus of the study is on two Plato’s dialogues (Gorgias and Republic) and their interaction with other thinkers of the period (Thucydides, Herodotus, Aristophanes, Euripides, Xenophon etc.). The analysis should show that Plato drew on democratic political theory and practice not only in criticizing democracy but also in advancing his own political theory.