Document Type
Article
Abstract
The purpose of this research is to determine how combining radical egalitarianism and nationalism to create radical democracy can lead to the destruction of society. Politics are for the purpose of protecting the common good, but individual liberties are sometimes necessary for the preservation of the common good based on the continual flux of social contexts. However, too much individualism can lead to the rise of tyrannical collectivism. Karl Popper termed this problem of too much toleration as “the paradox of tolerance.” Once everything becomes tolerable, there is little to no hope that anyone can guarantee anything. Absolute toleration will tolerate intolerable ideas to plague society, which would threaten liberty. In this research, there was a study of how Athens allowed too much toleration, leading to the rise of an ochlocracy. Research included scholarly books of Ancient Greece and Athens made from ancient and contemporary historians. There were also a use of political philosophy works from ancient philosophers and scholarly commentaries of those philosophers’ ideas from contemporary academics. Plus, contemporary works of psychology, nationalism, and the connection of psychology to nationalism were part of the research to understand the background of the mindset of the Athenian nationalists prior to and during the corruption of democracy in Athens. However, there also included scholarly works to challenge the claim that the Athenians were intemperate and full of envy in order to either defend or revise the thesis and prevent bias.
Publication Date
5-2022
Recommended Citation
Mayer, Matthew, "Egalitarian Nationalism's Contribution to the Rise and Fall of Athens' Democracy: the Criticisms of Athenian Democracy from the Old Oligarch, Plato, and Aristotle" (2022). Student Scholarship. 2.
https://scholarshub.louisiana.edu/uhp_stu_scholarship/2
Included in
Ancient History, Greek and Roman through Late Antiquity Commons, Political Science Commons