Plato's best practical form of society

Plato's best practical form of society
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Introduction
Plato’s views on an election system and land distribution in the Laws were a reflection of his political philosophy in critiquing earlier work and offering his suggestions. The ideal city state as envisioned by Plato needed to conform to the best interests of the people either through an electoral system or through sharing of property. Even though, Plato focussed on the role of elections in the society, the ideal state is a blend of monarchy and democracy. In any case, equal distribution of land would not necessary result to fairness, as Plato classified the society in classes in the electoral process. The rule by superior legislators also assumes that they have the best intention, but this is merely hypothetical.
Land distribution
To Plato, land distribution ought to take into account the population of a city state and the land that belongs to a neighbouring city state. Furthermore, Plato states that land distribution needs to be equitably shared in a way that supports people in the city state. This would also ensure that the inhabitants of such land would be able to defend themselves against external attack. Consequently, Plato envisioned a society where there was no private land ownership as the ideal situation in The Laws (Plato, 2013. However, land distribution needs to be a joint venture which also incorporates sharing of houses in Plato’s writings. On the other hand, distribution of farm land should be minimal as the process is too taxing. To ensure that there is no sub division of farm land Plato suggested that every lands owner need to name one male heir who would inherit the land (Plato, 2013).
Election system
Plato viewed custodians of the law as the most eligible persons to hold office, but the initial process of electing these individuals would not involve the population. Plato supposed that those who had participated in war when still young had the interests of the state at heart and would hence be suited to elect the custodians of the law. To lay emphasis on the importance of official selection, Plato stated that the election would need to take place in the temple, as this was a revered place (Plato, 2004). However, this would also result to those electing officials to leave their details on who they selected. This is a form of democracy that assumed that those electing knew best, and that a person who had objections to those to be elected could raise their objections before the final election
Advantages
Plato’s views on land distribution were controversial, but there are also benefits to the policy of reducing the number of large land owners. The main advantage of this policy is that no one person would hold power because of his ability to influence the economy of their city states. People depended on land as a source of livelihood, and large land owners would merely be leasing out ...