Can a central government be compared to tyranny?

Answer: Nearly 2,400 years ago, the Greek philosophers Plato and Aristotle explored political philosophy. Aristotle concluded that "it is evident that the form of government is best in which every man, whoever he is, can act best and live happily."

In Philadelphia some 2,000 years after Plato and Aristotle's time, a group of men was trying to write a constitution. George Washington, James Madison, and the other framers of the Constitution were dedicated to constructing a just government. Americans had overthrown what they considered a tyrannous British government. The framers wanted to create a national government free of tyranny, governed by the rule of law.

The new American nation was quite different from the ancient Greek city-states. Still, many of the framers at Philadelphia had studied and understood Plato's and Aristotle's political philosophies. And they were grappling with many of the same political questions.