ABSTRACT
Modern political development theory suffers from deterministic tendencies that were not present in classical comparative politics. In their quest to democratize the world, and because they assume that history is determined to move towards democracy, many political scientists no longer regard tyranny to be something other than mythical. Yet tyranny is still real, and its possibility should not be overlooked when it comes to classifying regimes. Studying the rhetoric of tyranny from an Aristotelian perspective allows us to understand the behavior of a regime’s political leaders, to classify their speeches and actions accordingly, and to alert the people to how their leaders attempt to mold common opinions to conform to their enthymemes and, in so doing, legitimize their rule.
