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Journal of Contemporary Politics

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Socrates and the Crisis of Modern Politics
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Journal of Contemporary Politics

DOI: 10.53989/jcp.v4i4.25.69

Year: 2025, Volume: 4, Issue: 4, Pages: 146-151

Original Article

Socrates and the Crisis of Modern Politics

K Afsal1,∗, T P Aswin2

1Lecturer, Political Science, Government Arts and Science College, Thrithala, 679534, Kerala, India
2Research Scholar, Department of Political science, University of Kerala, Kariavattom Campus, Thiruvananthapuram, 695581, Kerala, India

∗ Corresponding author.
K Afsal
Email: [email protected] 

Received Date:02 August 2025, Accepted Date:12 October 2025, Published Date:01 December 2025

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Abstract

This paper delves into the crisis of modern politics, encompassing its various manifestations, such as the loss of autonomy for the political, depoliticisation, and the erosion of political authority. It also explores Socrates as a potential source to address these issues, although it does not necessarily provide a definitive solution. The article tries to show that the Socratic method has a definite advantage in providing ontological stability to the concept of politics. It gives a clear justification for political authority, while his dialectics enables the formulation of a political praxis that accommodates plurality without dissolving into disintegration. Socratic teleology, on the other hand, is regarded as essential in bringing back the normative foundations of politics. His critique of democracy, especially regarding the pathologies of the Athenian system, has incredible validity in contemporary scenarios, reaffirming the need for closer attention to Socrates. We are once again compelled to grapple with the questions of 'what is political?' and 'who should rule?' that Socrates endeavoured to answer.

Keywords

Virtue, Depoliticisation, Dialectic, Citizen, Spectacle

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Copyright

© 2025 Published by Bangalore University. This is an open-access article under the CC BY license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) 

  • 12 January 2026

Year: 2025, Volume: 4, Issue: 4

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