Family as a model for the state
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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The family as a model for the organization of the state is a theory of political philosophy. It either explains the structure of certain kinds of state in terms of the structure of the family (as a model or as a claim about the historical growth of the state), or it attempts to justify certain types of state by appeal to the structure of the family. The first known writer to use it (certainly in any clear and developed way) was Aristotle, who argued that the natural progression of human beings was from the family via small communities to the polis.
Many writers from ancient times to the present have seen parallels between the family and the forms of the state. In particular, monarchists have argued that the state mirrors the patriarchal family, with the people obeying the king as children obey their father.
See also
- Paternalism
- Pater patriae
- Patrimonialism
- Fatherland
- Family dictatorship
- Robert Filmer
- Confucianism
- Peripatetic school for Aristotle's Hellenistic school
- Aristotelianism for Aristotle's wider legacy
