Timocracy

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Timocracy

Constitution

A constitution is a system for government — often codified as a written document — that establishes the rules and principles of an autonomous political entity....
al theory defines a timocracy as either:

a state
State

A state is a political Social contract with effective sovereignty over a geographic area and representing a population. These may be nation states, State or multinational states....
where only property owners may participate in government
Government

Government is the body within any organization that has the authority to make and the power to enforce laws, regulations, or rules. Typically, the government refers to a civil government -- local, provincial, or national -- but commercial, academic, religious, or other formal organizations are also administered by governing bodies....
a government where rulers are selected and perpetuated based on the degree of honor they hold relative to others in their society, peer group or class

The more extreme forms of timocracy where power derives from wealth rather than honour, may shift in their form and become a plutocracy

Plutocracy

Plutocracy is rule by the wealthy, or power provided by wealth.In a plutocracy, the degree of economic inequality is high while the level of social mobility is low....
where the wealthy and powerful use their power to entrench their wealth.

word derives from the Greek words time / t?µ? , meaning "honor" or "worth", and -kratia meaning "rule" (as in government).

lass="link1" onMouseover='showByLink("m1825615",this)' onMouseout='hide("m1825615")'href="http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Solon">Solon

Solon

Solon was an Athens statesman, lawmaker, and lyric poetry. He is remembered particularly for his efforts to legislate against political, economic and moral decline in Archaic period in Greece Athens....
introduced the ideas of timokratia as a graded oligarchy

Oligarchy

Oligarchy is a form of government where political power effectively rests with a small Elitism segment of society distinguished by royalty, wealth, family, military influence or occult spiritual hegemony....
in his Solonian Constitution

Solonian Constitution

The Solonian Constitution was created by Solon in the early 6th century BC.Solon wanted to revise or abolish the older laws of Draco , which had not solved any of the problems in Athens despite inflicting harsh penalties for almost every crime....
for Athens

Athens

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Encyclopedia

Constitution

a state
State

A state is a political Social contract with effective sovereignty over a geographic area and representing a population. These may be nation states, State or multinational states....
where only property owners may participate in government
Government

Government is the body within any organization that has the authority to make and the power to enforce laws, regulations, or rules. Typically, the government refers to a civil government -- local, provincial, or national -- but commercial, academic, religious, or other formal organizations are also administered by governing bodies....
a government where rulers are selected and perpetuated based on the degree of honor they hold relative to others in their society, peer group or class

The more extreme forms of timocracy where power derives from wealth rather than honour, may shift in their form and become a plutocracy

Plutocracy

Etymology

The word derives from the Greek words time / t?µ? , meaning "honor" or "worth", and -kratia meaning "rule" (as in government).

Timocracy and property

Solon

Oligarchy

Solonian Constitution

Athens

Athens , the Capital and largest city of Greece, dominates the Attica periphery; as one of the List of cities by time of continuous habitation, its recorded history spans around 3,400 years....
in the early 6th century BC. His was the first known deliberately-implemented form of timocracy, allocating political rights and economic responsibility depending on membership of one of four tier

Social class

Social class refers to the hierarchy distinctions between individuals or groups in societies or cultures. Usually most societies have some notion of social class , but concretely defined social classes are not found in every known type of human societies....
s of the population. Solon defined these tiers by measuring how many bushel

Bushel

A bushel is a unit of dry measure, usually subdivided into eight local gallons in the systems of Imperial units and U.S. customary units. It is used for volumes of dry measure commodity, not liquids, most often in agriculture....
s of produce each man could produce in a year, namely:

Pentacosiomedimni
Pentacosiomedimni

In the cities of 5th Century BC Ancient Greece the Pentacosiomedimni were the top class of citizens set out by the Politician Solon. The Pentacosiomedimni were those whose property or estate could produce 500 bushels of wet or dry goods , per year....
- "Men of the 500 bushel", those who produced 500 bushels of produce per year, could serve as generals in the army
Hippeis
Hippeis

Hippeis was the Ancient Greece term for cavalry. The Hippeus was the second highest of the four Ancient Athens social classes, made of men who could afford to maintain a war horse in the service of the state....
- Knights, those who could equip themselves and one cavalry horse for war, valued at 300 bushels per year
Zeugitae
Zeugitae

In the cities of 5th Century BC Ancient Greece, Zeugitae were the second lowest class of people set out by the politician Solon. The Zeugitae were those whose property or estate could produce 200 bushels of wet or dry goods , per year....
- Tillers, owners of at least one pair of beasts of burden, valued at 200 bushels per year, could serve as Hoplites
Thetes - Manual laborers

N.G.L. Hammond supposes that Solon instituted a graduated tax upon the upper classes, levied in a ratio of 6:3:1, with the lowest class of thetes paying nothing in taxes but remaining ineligible for elected office.

Aristotle

Aristotle

Aristotle was a Greeks philosopher, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. He wrote on many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, Poetics , theater, music, logic, rhetoric, politics, government, ethics, biology and zoology....
later wrote in his Nicomachean Ethics
Nicomachean Ethics

Nicomachean Ethics, or Ta Ethika, is a work by Aristotle on virtue and moral character which plays a prominent role in defining Aristotelian ethics....
() about three "true political forms" for a state, each of which could appear in corrupt form, becoming one of three negative forms. Aristotle describes timocracy in the sense of rule by property-owners: it comprised one of his true political forms. Aristotelian timocracy approximated to the constitution of Athens

Athens

Athens , the Capital and largest city of Greece, dominates the Attica periphery; as one of the List of cities by time of continuous habitation, its recorded history spans around 3,400 years....
, although Athens exemplified the corrupted version of this form, described as democracy

Democracy

Democracy is a form of government in which power is held directly or indirectly by citizens under a free electoral system. It is derived from the Greek language d?????at?a , "popular government" which was coined from d???? , "people" and ???t?? , "rule, strength" in the middle of the 5th-4th century BC to denote the political syst...
.

Timocracy and honor

Plato

Plato , was a Classical Greece Greeks philosopher, mathematician, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Platonic Academy in Ancient Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the western world....
produced the earliest surviving text using the term in the rule-by-honor sense. In The Republic, he describes four forms of unjust state, with timocracy as the preferable of the four and closest to the ideal society. The city-state

City-state

A city-state is an independent country whose territory consists solely of a single major city and the area immediately surrounding it. Examples include the city-states of ancient Greece , the Phoenician cities of Canaan , the Sumerian cities of Mesopotamia , the Mayans of pre-Columbian Mesoamerica , the central Asian cities along the Silk Roa...
of Sparta

Sparta

Sparta was a city-state in ancient Greece, situated on the Eurotas River in the southern part of the Peloponnese. From circa 650 BC it rose to become the dominant military power in the region and as such was recognized as the overall leader of the combined Greek forces during the Greco-Persian Wars....
provided Plato with a real-world model for this form of government. Modern observers might describe Sparta as a totalitarian or one-party state, although the details we know of its society come almost exclusively from Sparta's enemies. The idea of militarism

Militarism

File:CaptainJ.R.Jellicoe.jpgMilitarism is the belief or desire of a government or people that a country should maintain a strong military capability and be prepared to use it aggressively to defend or promote national interests....
often attaches to the honor-oriented timocracy.

This form of timocracy is very similar to meritocracy

Meritocracy

Meritocracy is a -cracy or other organization wherein appointments are made and responsibilities are given based on demonstrated talent and ability , rather than by wealth , family connections , social class privilege , friends , seniority , popularity or other historical determinants of social position and political power....
, in the sense that individuals of outstanding character or faculty are placed in the seat of power.