In Good Faith: Democracy and tyranny | The Indian Express

In Good Faith: Democracy and tyranny | The Indian Express

Written by Vijay Tankha |Updated: June 17, 2019 4:42:34 am

In Good Faith: Democracy and tyranny

There is an intimate connection between the two seemingly opposed concepts.

Tyrannical rule was not necessarily tyrannical in our sense of the term. The tyrant, like all rulers, had to balance the interests of the rich and the poor, while maintaining if not enhancing his own prestige and honour.

Although they appear as polar opposites, there is, or at least was, an intimate connection between democracy and tyranny, one which also troubled people in the past. The Athenian state’s experiment with democracy, almost 25 centuries ago, lasted 200 years (its demise is fantastically dated to August 2, 338 BCE, even more precisely to three in the afternoon, when the Macedonians overwhelmed the Athenians and their allies in the battle of Chaeronea), proving once again the truism, nothing lasts.