anacyclosis
Sign in to saveThe political doctrine of anacyclosis (or anakyklosis from ) is a cyclical theory of political evolution. The theory of anacyclosis is based upon the Greek typology of constitutional forms of rule by the one, the few, and the many. Anacyclosis states that three basic forms of "benign" government (monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy) are inherently weak and unstable, tending to degenerate rapidly into the three basic forms of "malignant" government (tyranny, oligarchy, and ochlocracy).
In the Vinony graph
Vinony's link graph records 8 inbound references to anacyclosis, and connects out to Cicero, social cycle theory and Australia.
It sits within the topics Greek words and phrases and Mixed government.
Vinony links it to 10 Wikipedia language editions.
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- concept
- Subclass of
- theory
- Part of
- constitutional theory
Show 1 more fact
- facet of
- constitutional theory
Sources (1)
via Wikidata · CC0
~5 min read
Encyclopedic overview
7 sectionsContents
- Polybius' sequence
- Origin
- Historical references
- Modern analysis
- See also
- References
- External links
The political doctrine of anacyclosis (or anakyklosis from ) is a cyclical theory of political evolution. The theory of anacyclosis is based upon the Greek typology of constitutional forms of rule by the one, the few, and the many. Anacyclosis states that three basic forms of "benign" government (monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy) are inherently weak and unstable, tending to degenerate rapidly into the three basic forms of "malignant" government (tyranny, oligarchy, and ochlocracy).
According to the doctrine, "benign" governments have the interests of all at heart, whereas "malignant" governments have the interests of a select few at heart. However, all six are considered unworkable because the first three rapidly transform into the latter three due to political corruption.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “anacyclosis” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.