Essay #7; The Role of Revolution The French Revolution was an intense, and violent event in world history which brought both good and evil changes to European society. Plato’s dialectic explains that with the fall of one form of government, comes the rise in a new form of government. It reads as follows: Aristocracy, Timocracy, Oligarchy, Democracy, Tyranny. For a while, each form of government is stable, however, over a period of time, it is inevitable for each to fall, contributing to the rise of the next. In other words, this process is a social evolution; the disagreement of legitimacy directly leads to the repudiation and thourough replacement of the current established government with a supposed improved government. It can be argued that the third phase, from oligarchy to democracy, was the most revolutionary phase because it created the most amount of violence and disorder throughout society. …show more content…
Oligarchy is clearly defined as the rule by the wealthy, whereas a democracy is the rule by the people. Through this change in government, the legitimate authority altered from being vested in money, to being vested in the people who seize power. Plato states that within an oligarchy, “The rich are honored and cultivated.”, whereas in a democracy “the people demand more and more freedom, until they are free to do anything they want [...]” (Plato’s AWords; retrieved from notes). It was inevitable for the oligarchy to fall because over time, it gets to a point where “Virtues are neglected and shunned” (Plato’s Words; retrieved from notes) by the wealthy rulers because they begin to use the government’s money and power for selfish