Capitalism And Democracy In Ancient India

Government is an essential part of civilization in modern and historic times. This crucial element of society has been observed in different forms. There are three main systems of governments: autocracy, oligarchy, and democracy. Which system a government belongs to is determined by who hold the sovereignty, meaning who has the supreme power and authority (“Sovereignty”). This leads to there being major differences between autocracies, oligarchies, and democracies.

What if you could live in a golden empire? That was exactly what the Gupta Empire was for India, their “Golden Age.” That was because of their daily life, Chandra Gupta II, and achievements in academics.

| What form of political state is best?Can a government restrict the liberty of its citizens?

While democracy has a simple definition, “power for the people”, the interpretations and means of executing that right by centers of power can vastly differ. In the ancient Roman republic, optimates and populares had vastly different political attitudes on who should play an active role in the government. In the name of democracy, leaders from both sides executed their power in different ways. However, optimates best represented the ideals of modern democracy through their attempts to prioritize efficiency and reduced conflict with qualified officials and have the people’s best interests at heart, with famous optimates such as Cato often standing up for the citizens against some populares’ attempts to abuse their power.

In the era of the contemporary United States, a country that has had the longest standing democracy, we are used to thinking very highly of its system. However, throughout our history, there have been a couple of critics to the system of democracy. It comes as no surprise that democracy does have its issues. One of the first pieces of literature where democracy was mentioned and analyzed at a deeper level was The Republic by Plato. This ancient Greek philosopher did not completely agree with democracy, regardless of the fact that ancient Athens was the first civilization that gave rise to it. In fact, in a numerical list that he composes on which are the best ways of ruling, Plato puts democracy at one of the lowest levels. In order, Plato’s list of types of government from most desirable to least desirable looks like this: 1.) Republic (The ideal city) 2.) Timocracy 3.) Oligarchy 4.) Democracy 5.) Tyranny. Additionally, In The Republic, Plato tells us his beliefs and values on certain aspects of life through the eyes of Socrates. So, even though Plato himself does not appear in The Republic and instead Socrates does, nonetheless, Plato and Socrates shared the same ideology when it came to democracy. As we know, Plato did not agree with democracy. As a result, in this paper, I will explore the greatest intellectual strengths and weaknesses of Plato’s view on democracy.

Both Greek Democracy and the Roman Republic contributed greatly to the development of the modern world, bringing into it the notions of democracy and republic. The evolution of these concepts took them to a level much higher than one present in Ancient Greece and Rome respectively. However, modern society continues to draw on somewhat idealized accounts of the ancient world for inspiration in improving today’s governing procedures.

The Mahabharata is a famous Indian epic consist of more than 100,000 verses and 18 parvas (books) written by Ved Vyasa and is the longest Sanskrit epic ever written. Mahabharata, older of the two, is conveyed from composition of the Rig Veda, ancient Indian compilation of Vedic Sanskrit hymns. You also see Mahabharata mention few names of monarchs, mentors and priests that occurs in the late Vedic period sources. However, with passing centuries its historical root cannot now be established because new characters and incidents have developed and

‘The Republic’ is a Socratic dialogue written by Plato around 380 BC, concerning about the order of justice, the order and character of just men and just city/states. The Republic is considered as the best known work of Plato and is considered one of the world’s most influential works of politics, history and philosophy. In this Socratic dialogue, Socrates discusses about the notions of justice and whether the just man is very happy when compared with his unjust, Athenian and foreign counterparts. Socrates considers the various facets of the existing regimes and proposes a series of hypothetical cities that are entirely different from his considerations. Such heated discussions result in the culmination of discussing kallipolis, a hypothetical city-state that was ruled by a philosopher king. In this paper, we are going to consider Socrates arguments about democracy by examining whether the concept of democracy always remains inconsistent with philosophical goals.

The definition of political economy is not simple. This essay uses the definitions given by Vincent Mosco and explores its origin in Greek and inspiration from the Classical Political Economy. Apart from the Classical Political Economy, this essay also describes other forms of this approach, such as Critical Political Economy and Neoclassical Political Economy. Latter the characteristics of political economy study are also discussed based on Vincent Mosco’s work in the 1990s.

Democracy is often referred to as the rule of the many, but Aristotle called this definition incomplete. In his book “Politics”, he explained that in a city if the majorities are aristocrats and if they have political authority, then it is an aristocracy not a democracy. He therefore defined democracy as when “free people have authority and Oligarchy as when the wealthy have it” (1290b). Plato viewed Democracy as a flawed system with too much inefficiency that would make any implementation of a true democracy not worth it. While Aristotle viewed democracy as a system that could work if it is limited to certain restrictions and if it is the regime that best fits the culture of the people to be governed. In this essay it will be argued that Plato’s view on democracy as a flawed system is more prevalent or more compelling if the current political arena around the world is observed.

one essential conviction, expressed in the word democracy itself: that power should be in the hands of the people. Although democracy today has been slightly inefficient in this idea, with the wealthy, elite class challenging this right, “it nevertheless claims for itself a fundamental validity that no other kind of society shares….” To completely understand the structure of democracy, one must return to the roots of the practice itself, and examine the origins in ancient Greece, the expansion in the Roman Empire, and how these practices combined make what we recognize as today’s democratic government.

The role of women in the Mahabharata makes an interesting and fascinating study providing insight into the strengths and weaknesses of their character. In the Mahabharata, four women play pivotal role in the course of events. The men play dice and wage wars in Mahabharata, as anywhere else; but it is the women who hold power and influence. It is the women who direct the course of events and unconsciously determine the fate of men and their generations to follow. The women are the true leaders of the Epic. These women displayed that the truly powerful do not cling to power. They knew when and how to wield it but also, even more important, to when not to use it.

In today's modern world representative government is the norm. Nearly all governments are ruled by their citizens via a republic or some other type of governing body. However, in the ancient world, this standard of democratic government had not yet taken hold; political control still belonged to the few elite, rich, and powerful persons and influential families. Thus, we have a contrast between governments of the ancient world and our modern day governments. In other words, the past generally denotes monarchy, empire, or absolute control. While modern government usually implies republic, voting, or democratic control.

The fact that traditional societies were small in size, made possible for anyone to participate with an active and direct way in the government of his community. “Every one is urged and invited to attend public meetings, and everyone is urged to vote not as a duty but as a privilege” (Vidich: 229). In modern

In this paper I will discuss specifically on the Classical Mahābhārata, taking it as representative literature of Ancient Bhāratavarṣa.