民主还是暴政——希腊化时代与罗马时代思想史中的雅典民主问题

Democracy or Tyranny:the Athenian Democracy in the Hellenistic Age and the History of Roman Thoughts

本文认为 ,自希腊化时代以降 ,由于城邦民主制度的衰落和希腊化、罗马等君主国的兴起 ,批判雅典民主制度的思潮得到了发展。无论是在希腊化时代的波里比阿等人笔下 ,还是在罗马共和国末期的西塞罗或者罗马帝国时代的普鲁塔克等人的思想中 ,雅典民主更多地以混乱、刻薄、无法制的暴民政治面貌出现。西方学者今天对它的肯定不过是民主政治再度符合了他们的需要。因此 ,在传统与现实之间 ,现实的需要往往是第一位的。

This paper tries to demonstrate that the attacks on the Athenian democracy have been developed since the Hellenistic Age because of the decline of the city-state. Both Polybius et al. in the Hellenistic world and Cicero, Plutarch in the Roman world were critical of the Athenian democracy. In their opinions , Athenian democracy is equal to political turmoil, demo' s greed, and politicians' selfishness. In short, democracy was Tyranny. Therefore, the encomium of the contemporary Western scholars to the democratic politics is probably due to their interests in its ideology.