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The Conversation USA

Why tyranny could be the inevitable outcome of democracy

  • Written by Lawrence Torcello, Associate Professor of Philosophy, Rochester Institute of Technology
At the dawn of democracy, Plato foresaw an unfortunate end.vangelis aragiannis/Shutterstock.com

Plato, one of the earliest thinkers and writers about democracy, predicted that letting people govern themselves would eventually lead the masses to support the rule of tyrants.

When I tell my college-level philosophy students that in about 380 B.C. he...

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