Timocracy
|
|
Timocracy is either a state where in order to participate in government, one must own property or a government where a love of honor is a ruling principle in government. The word is derived from the Greek words timo-, meaning honour or worth, and -kratia meaning rule (as in government).
Plato was first to write of the term, in the rule by honour sense. In his work The Republic he describes the ideas of Socrates; that there are four forms of unjust state with timocracy being the preferable of the four and closest to the ideal society. The real world model for this form of government was the state of Sparta. In modern terms Sparta's politics could be described as totalitarian or a one party state although much of the detail we know of its society comes from their enemies
Aristotle later wrote in his Nicomachean Ethics about three true political forms for a state each of which could corrupt becomming one of three negative forms. Aristotle's timocracy is meant in the sense of rule by property owners and was one of his true political forms. This was nearest to the constitution of Athens, although Athens is was the corrupted version of this form and was described as democracy.