Concept of Plato's Ideal State

    The great political thinker Plato explained the theory of the ideal state in his book " the Republic". According to him, the citizens can be best at their ideal state., while depicting the picture of such a state he was an attempt to show as to what an ideal State ought to be without the caring. In his ideal state, there are lots of romance of free intelligence, which was not bound by any customs and conventions. It was the superiority of virtue that mattered must in the administration of the state. Plato starts with the human being and divine soul in the elements namely Region, Spirit, Appetite. According to him, appetite gives birth to love, region guides action, and unity and spirit inspire the people for battle and competition.                                                              

Plato's ideology is composed of Philosopher Kings, soldiers, Peasants, and artisans, Besides there are systems of communism of property, the communism of family as a state-regulated system of education, and a conception of justice.                                                 

The features of Plato's Ideal States are.

i) Plato's ideal state must be governed by a philosopher-king. he should be a seeker of truth and wisdom.

ii) Plato gave importance to the deference as an essential thing to run the state.

iii) According to Plato, in his ideal state, everybody must have done his/her work according to their assignment.

iv) Without education, a philosopher-king will not be wise. So he wanted the State-controlled  Education system.

v) Justice was an essential and integrated part of his Ideal State.

vi) There is no discrimination between men and women in Plato's ideal state. To him, men and women are integral parts of the state. Hence, he has given some status to men and women in his ideal state.  

    The concept of Plato's Ideal State is not above the criticism. Some arguments against this concept are as follows... 

i) According to critics Plato's theory of the ideal state is not given the importance of the development of human personality.

ii) According to Plato rulers are not above the law. But he never gave importance to establish the law. He even did not mention the law, which is not acceptable in the present-day context.

iii) Plato's ideal state will be ruled by a philosopher-king. But he never talked about the training of the philosopher-king. according to critics, it will be very problematic for a philosopher-king without training.

               

From the above discussion, we may conclude that Plato's concept of the Ideal State is playing a vital role in today's context also. though there is some criticism, about this concept, most importantly we can not deny his contributions of this theory towards the formations of the Modern State.