Anacyclosis

The cycle of governance forms, according to the Classical Greeks

Description

Polybius:

“The initial human condition is characterized as savage, scattered, and insecure. Out of this disorder one man, of particular strength and boldness of character, establishes a hierarchical order, a kingship, with the consent of the governed. The king’s sons lack the virtue and restraint of the founder and degenerate into abusive tyranny, against which the leading citizens rebel and replace with an aristocracy. The next generation lacks the virtue and restraint of its predecessor and degenerates into an abusive oligarchy, inciting the mass of the people to rebel and establish a democracy. Against the virtues of moderation and restraint are lacking in the next generation, which degenerates into an ochlocracy (mob rule), which then sinks into savagery, thus returning to the beginning for the cycle to run again.”