Ochlocracy

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Ochlocracy ( ancient Greek ὀχλοκρατία , from ὄχλος óchlos , German 'crowd' , 'mass', ' rabble ', and -kratie ), German also rabble rule , is a derogatory term for a form of rule in which a mass of their political decisions as a majority or through Violence prevailed. In the older literature the word laocracy is occasionally found as a synonym (Greek: λαός laos , German 'people' , 'crowd' and κράτος kratos , German 'power' , 'rule'). Literally translated, laocracy means ' rule of the people '. In the Conversations-Hand-Lexikon of 1831, laocracy was also translated as mob rule.

history

orientation
Common good Selfishness
Number of
Messrs
nant 		one monarchy Tyranny
some aristocracy oligarchy
all democracy Ochlocracy
Forms of rule according to Polybius

The term was introduced into the ancient Greek theory of the state by the historian Polybios (around 200–118 BC) . In his constitutional cycle , he presents the ochlocracy as a form of decay or "degeneracy" of the democratic form of government . The orientation towards the common good is lost; instead, selfishness and greed determine the actions of the citizens.

Herodotus already distinguished between a good and a bad form of rule by all citizens. Even Plato (427-347. Chr.) Distinguished a successful result of a failed democracy, but introduced here no own terminology. Aristotle (384–322 BC) later described politics (Greek πολιτεία politeia , German 'constitution' ) as the “good” and democracy (Greek δῆμος dēmos , German “people” ) as the “bad” expression a form of government in which the people rule. Finally, Polybios differentiated the terminology and called ochlocracy the negative variant of popular rule, while the term “democracy” had a positive connotation for him.

In the ancient theory of the state since Plato the idea prevailed that every form of rule oriented towards the common good had a degenerate counterpart oriented only towards the interests of the rulers. From the view that the basic forms of the constitutions are necessarily unstable, Polybius first developed the idea of ​​the constitutional cycle, which relates these forms of rule to one another.

When considering the two forms of popular rule, the distinction between the common good (democracy) and the cumulative interests of the individual citizens becomes clear: If everyone only thinks of himself and acts out of this interest, he ultimately harms the common good. We find the same distinction in Jean-Jacques Rousseau's distinction between volonté générale and volonté de tous .

literature

  • Reinhold Bichler : Political Thinking in Hellenism . In: Iring Fetscher , Herfried Münkler (Hrsg.): Piper's manual of political ideas. Volume: 1: Early civilizations and European antiquity. Piper, Munich [u. a.] 1988, ISBN 3-492-02951-5 , pp. 439-484.
  • Wilfried Nippel : Political Theories of Greco-Roman Antiquity. In: Hans-Joachim Lieber : Political Theories from Antiquity to the Present (=  Federal Center for Political Education. Series 299, Studies on History and Politics ). 2nd revised edition. Federal Agency for Political Education, Bonn 1993, ISBN 3-89331-167-X , pp. 17–46, especially p. 30.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Carl Venator: The foreign words used in our language, with details of their pronunciation, their Germanization and explanation, in alphabetical order both for home use for everyone and for schools. Darmstadt 1838, p. 273 ( digitized in the Google book search).
  2. ↑ Use as "the rule of the rabble" in: Conversations-Hand-Lexikon. A supplementary dictionary for those who want to be more fully informed about the various subjects that occur when reading as well as in oral conversations , Reutlingen 1831, p. 411 ( digitized in the Google book search); “Die Volksherrschaft” in: Otto Friedrich Rammler: Universal letter holder or sample book for writing all essays in business and common life, as well as in friendly relationships. A manual and auxiliary book for people of all levels. Leipzig 1840, p. 364 ( digitized in the Google book search); “Unregulated democracy” in: Joseph Meyer: The large conversation lexicon for the educated classes. Volume nineteenth. First division. Hildburghausen 1851, p. 1036 ( digitized in the Google book search); Synonym for “Democracy” in: Christian Daniel Voss: Handbook of General Political Science based on Schlözer's plan edited , Leipzig 1802, p. 72 ( digitized in the Google book search); Synonym for Ochlocracy or Cheirokratie In: Karl Friedrich Vollgraff : First attempt at a scientific justification of general ethnology through anthropology as well as the philosophy of state and law through the ethnology or nationality of the peoples. In three parts. Part 3, Marburg 1855, p. 347 ( digitized in the Google book search); “Favoring the people when the plebs have more power, which is commonly called laocracy or ochlocracy, as it once behaved in Rome than the plebs when they went on strike against the patres”, in: Christoph Besold : Synopsis of Politics . Insel Verlag, 2000, p. 115 ( limited preview in the Google book search).
  3. ↑ Erich Bayer (ed.): Dictionary of history. Terms and technical terms (= Kröner's pocket edition . Volume 289). 4th, revised edition. Kröner, Stuttgart 1980, ISBN 3-520-28904-0 , p. 383; Bernd Guggenberger : Democracy / Theory of Democracy . In: Dieter Nohlen (Ed.): Lexicon of Politics, Volume 1: Political Theories . Directmedia, Berlin 2004, p. 36; Tobias Bevc: Political Theory . UTB Basics, 2012, p. 60 et al .; in an essay in the volume Reinhart Koselleck , Heinrich Lutz , Jörn Rüsen (eds.): Forms of historiography . dtv, Munich 1982, p. 398, instead of degeneracy, it speaks of “forms of decay” in good constitutions.
  4. ^ Plato, Politikos , 292a.
  5. ↑ Aristotle: Nicomachean Ethics , 1160a.
  6. ↑ Polybios 6,4,6; 6,4,10; 6.57.9.
  7. ↑ Cf. Nippel, Politische Theorien der Greco-Roman Antiquity , p. 30.
  8. ↑ Polybios 1, 1, 6, 3-10.