Plato's Ideal State as given in ‘The Republic’ - Concept of Philosopher King

Imagine your college was run not by whoever won an election, but by whoever scored highest on every exam for twenty straight years and then trained for another decade after that. No campaigning, no manifestos, no votes — just the person who has spent longest learning what is actually good for everyone else. That is Plato's philosopher king, and the fact that it sounds both attractive and slightly terrifying is exactly why this remains one of the most examined ideas in political theory.

In two minutes

Plato's ideal state, set out in The Republic, is ruled by a philosopher king because only someone who has grasped the Form of the Good is fit to govern in everyone's true interest, and this single idea — rule by wisdom rather than by consent or birth — is what every criticism of Plato ends up attacking.

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