Than the republic is better than democracy

The proclamation of the Italian Republic, 1946.

Photo: Gamma-Keystone / Getty images

It may seem that I neglect the “razor of Occam”, trying to explain something simple and understandable quite difficult, but it is difficult for me to overcome the impression that the concept widely recognized in the civilized world almost disappeared in Russia, not without good reasons. If we recall ancient political theories, then another term was originally present in them, namely, democracy; Moreover, which is characteristic, such was perceived not as a natural form of government, but as one of the elements of an eternal cycle. According to Plato, democracy is established after a few iterations after aristocratic power - and then replaced by tyranny. Aristotle inserted the monarchy between these types of state, but he did not deny the final point in the form of tyranny. Polybius later made his contribution, adding that ocherocracy, the power of the crowd directly replacing democracy, but the rest was completely solidarized with his predecessors. As a matter of fact, it is this transit that we are observing in Russia over the past quarter century (historical time is compressed, isn't it?) - and therefore is completely logical that we recall almost every day with hatred or sighing about democracy (irreversibly gone to a new “long cycle”), and almost never about the republic.

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