POL200Y1 Lecture Notes - Western Philosophy, Responsible Government, Direct Democracy
28 Apr 2014
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Pol 200 lecture #1 (tutorials begin week of 24th) The political history: democratic institutions of ancient athens and the controversies surrounding them: plato is developing an idea of an alternative regime, although critical of the democratic practices of his time, it owes lot to democracy. Instability: democracy in ancient greece was unstable (lasted 100 years, but suffered from both inside and outside forces, city states focused on one urban community with a rural periphery, athens (pop. Approx 45000) engaged in several wars, against persia and. Sparta, all which lasted a fairly long time. 3 criticisms of democracy: bad decision making people don"t understand political problems, people are open to manipulation, threat of fashion people will make decision based on class/ own interest instead of common good. The philosophic history: plato and socrates: plato was a student of socrates at age 20, socrates acts as the most important individual in most of plato works.
