High Concept AH: Polygamy in a Classical Republic

This is a really high concept question. In other words, I’m not saying “what if the Romans were polygamists?” or “what if the Arabs founded a republic?” Just a very general question of how a classical republic where polygamy is common (at least among the elites) might look. Off the top of my head, I can’t think of any particular societies that fit this description.

Consider how inheritance and political dynasties might work in such a society. How about political marriage alliances and the like. Is it more likely that such a republic would be more equal or less equal?
 
This is a really high concept question. In other words, I’m not saying “what if the Romans were polygamists?” or “what if the Arabs founded a republic?” Just a very general question of how a classical republic where polygamy is common (at least among the elites) might look. Off the top of my head, I can’t think of any particular societies that fit this description.

Consider how inheritance and political dynasties might work in such a society. How about political marriage alliances and the like. Is it more likely that such a republic would be more equal or less equal?

Polygamy is something which usual make a society worse, it means that wife's becomes a status object and that a large part of the male population end up unmarried or only marry late. It's a model which lend itself to create unstable society where women are property.
 
Polygamy is something which usual make a society worse, it means that wife's becomes a status object and that a large part of the male population end up unmarried or only marry late. It's a model which lend itself to create unstable society where women are property.
So maybe a society that's generally polyamorous rather than specifically polygamous?
 
Polygamy is something which usual make a society worse, it means that wife's becomes a status object and that a large part of the male population end up unmarried or only marry late. It's a model which lend itself to create unstable society where women are property.

This really only applies to societies in which too large percentage of the population is polygamous, which would not be the case if only the political elites were. In several polygamous societies, the vast majority of the population were monogamous (99.9%+ in Ancient Egypt or Germania), and women certainly were not viewed as property; while only kings were allowed multiple wives for political purposes.

Perhaps OP could transfer this over to a republic in which only persons holding high political office could be polygamous, but I'm not sure how that would-if it even could-work.
 
I know that this is WAY outside the scope of what OP wants, but maybe something like the Saudi’s could fall in the Arab Spring.
 
Polygamy is something which usual make a society worse, it means that wife's becomes a status object and that a large part of the male population end up unmarried or only marry late. It's a model which lend itself to create unstable society where women are property.

For clarification, what I mean by more equal is in terms of class, not sexes (polygamist societies clearly tend to be less than equal for women). As others have mentioned, polygamy tends to be practiced mainly among the upper classes in the societies that embrace it, which is sort of natural. By having the elite in a republic engage in polygamy regularly, you end up, naturally, with a larger population of elites, which means fortunes are divided up more, which means political dynasties become less enduring (easier to get a plum governorship for your only son, hard to get one each for your seven sons), etc. Or perhaps not.
 
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