Władza autorytarna w Grecji i w Rzymie
Authoritarian Power in Ancient Greece and Rome

Summary/Abstract: RESEARCH OBJECTIVE: The goal of this article is the presentation and analysis of two different forms of the authoritarian power in Greece and in republican Rome: tyranny and constitutional dictatorship. THE RESEARCH PROBLEM AND METHODS: The basic method of this paper is an analysis of the texts based on authority of the ancient authors and of theirs posterior interpreters dealing with the political and legal thought of the antiquity. THE PROCESS OF ARGUMENTATION: The article consists of the two fundamental parts. The first one presents questions connected with the tyrannical power in Greece; the second part analyses the particular character of the Roman political pragmatism, which becomes manifest in the originally Roman institution of the constitutional dictatorship. RESEARCH RESULTS: The essential result of the analysis is the thesis that an authoritarian power is an indispensable safeguard of the State self-preservation in the emergency situations; it can be testified also by the reality of our contemporary demo-liberal States, where the public security can be in danger owing to the lack of the strong executive power in the periods of the serious political, social and economic crises. CONCLUSIONS, INNOVATIONS, AND RECOMMENDATIONS: On account of its historical references the paper can be of service to the reflection on the contemporary crises in the demo-liberal systems and can be also of use as a warning against the slight of the forms of authoritarian power having at it’s disposal the authorization and the measures for staving off the existential dangers.

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