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Comment by whatshisface | Hacker News Reader

>It devolves to sensualism, that is, the highest aim of the people is to satisfy their desires, and they capture the government for that purpose.

If Plato's hypothesis is that all democracies will elect 100 mega-Bernies to their senates, I think we can safely say it has been falsified.

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Oh, because the US has long terms implemented currently?

Plato's hypothesis was that shorter terms would lead to more democratic (and therefore baser) democracies. Our terms are not that long, although incumbent advantage makes them longer in practice.

Really? Because the top comment to which you replied stated:

>This is a problem as old as thought itself. One of the worlds first philosophers, Plato, wrote a book about it. He agreed, the best form of government is one where the terms are longer.

Ancient philosophers did not necessarily think democracy was good. Some were even so direct as to say that noble blood deserved to rule. Plato believed longer terms were less influenced by democracy than shorter terms, and therefore they were a better form of government.

I think someone is going to have to come up with some actual scholarly citations, because you and the top commenter to which I am referring are explicitly disagreeing and up until this point all anyone has done is make baseless assertions

We are not disagreeing.

Apologies, I misunderstood your original comment

I’m looking at both comments. They are both saying Plato pushed for longer terms.

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