How Does One Understand the Stability of Political Regimes from a Theoretical Point of View?

Abstract

The investigations of this paper revolve around the concept of stability. We would like to make several analytical distinctions which would allow us to differentiate between various concepts of stability. The background of our work is the theory of political change supported by examples of this kind presented by Plato, Polybius, James Harrington, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and Aristotle.The paper includes some remarks on Hobbes’s and Hume’s theories of stability which, strictly speaking, can be smoothly subsumed under a modern political concept thereof. Also worthy of note is the specification of the main subject-matter of political theories in terms of the problem of stability. Finally, we propose a sketch of the map of the problem of stability.

Keywords

• stability
• political theory
• political change
• political regimes
• anacyclosis