Laws (Book III) by Plato
This post is part of my journey through the classic texts of Western civilization.
We begin with a fascinating discussion regarding the origin and formation of government. Appropriately, the Athenian Stranger roots the formation of civil government in the family: "government originated in the authority of a father and a mother, whom, like a flock of birds, they followed, forming one troop under the patriarchal rule and sovereignty of their parents..." The common notion that the family is a "pre-political institution" is misleading; the family is a political institution, one of hierarchy, rule, and order.
How do we go from a family to an entire polis? This happens when considering multiple families coming together in social and political life:
"every family would be under the rule of the eldest, and, owing to their separation from one another, would have peculiar customs in things divine and human, which they would have received from their several parents who had educated them; and these customs would incline them to order, when the parents had the element of order in their nature, and to courage, when they had the element of courage. And they would naturally stamp upon their children, and upon their children's children, their own likings; and, as we are saying, they would find their way into the larger society, having already their own peculiar laws..."
The Stranger acutely recognizes the manner in which customs, virtues, traits, etc. are passed on down generations via familial lines. Some of these things will even end up enshrined into law. All these things, when considered over a broad period of time, begin to define a distinct people.
Where there is law, though, there is a legislator. These legislators arise from out of these families, of course. The Stranger distinguishes between legislators and magistrates, with the legislators choosing magistrates. Presumably, the legislators are those who create and decide the laws; the magistrates are the ones who enforce them (admittedly, this distinction strikes me as superfluous).
This whole discussion on the origin and formation of government is of particular interest of me due to discussions I have had with others in my personal life regarding the existence of government before the Fall. I have before posted an excerpt from George Gillespie arguing for the existence of civil government in the state of innocency. Plato (through the Athenian Stranger) here makes a strong and clear case as well. It is an evident reality that man, as a political and social animal, naturally groups and creates government to facilitate order and maintain a way of life. Hierarchy is baked into reality, and with hierarchy comes government.
The Athenian Stranger regards all forms of government to be derived from monarchy and/or democracy, with the best forms of government being a mixture. There is an emphasis on the importance of finding the mean of things rather than falling to an excess on one side, not just with regards to monarchy and democracy, but in all of life:
"That if any one gives too great a power to anything, too large a sail to a vessel, too much food to the body, too much authority to the mind, and does not observe the mean, everything is overthrown, and, in the wantonness of excess, runs in the one case to disorders, and in the other to injustice, which is the child of excess. I mean to say, my dear friends, that there is no soul of man, young and irresponsible, who will be able to sustain the temptation of arbitrary power—no one who will not, under such circumstances, become filled with folly, that worst of diseases, and be hated by his nearest and dearest friends: when this happens his kingdom is undermined, and all his power vanishes from him. And great legislators who know the mean should take heed of the danger."
This leads to the Stranger highlighting the virtue of temperance and how important it is to a well-ordered society. It is the man who possesses temperance who ought to be honored in the ideal state.
The book ends with the Stranger and his companions beginning to discuss the framing of a new state were they to be its founders. With all the prior discussion on the formation of government, the importance of balancing between authority (monarchy) and freedom (democracy), I am reminded how truly difficult the political art is. No wonder we observe throughout history the cyclical nature of regimes as empires rise and they fall.
"And have not thousands and thousands of cities come into being during this period and as many perished? And has not each of them had every form of government many times over, now growing larger, now smaller, and again improving or declining?"