Discover how the Ancient World influenced generations of political thinkers when they proposed a mixed constitution that might prevent unwanted political change.
Plato in the fourth century BCE penned an indelible sequence of constitutional decline ending in tyranny, as well as a more complex set of possibilities for mixing different constitutional kinds. Two centuries later, Polybius portrayed constitutional change as cyclical, with an eventual collapse of democracy into ‘ochlocracy’ (mob rule) and then reversion to monarchy. These and other ancient authors proposed that a mixed constitution might prevent unwanted political change – an idea that would influence many later generations of political thinkers.
Time: Thursday 28 May, 6pm
Tickets: Tickets are free and must be reserved in advance.