Plato's five regimes
Encyclopedia
The Classical Greek
philosopher
Plato
discusses five types of regimes. They are Aristocracy
, Timocracy
, Oligarchy
, Democracy
and Tyranny
. Plato also assigns a man to each of these regimes to illustrate what they stand for. The tyrannical man would represent Tyranny for example. These five regimes progressively degenerate starting with Aristocracy at the top and Tyranny at the bottom. Each regime below aristocracy is worse than the one before. Aristocracy is considered the best.
is the republic. This regime is ruled by philosopher king
, and thus is grounded on wisdom and reason. The aristocratic state, and the man whose nature corresponds to it, are the objects of Plato's analyses throughout much of The Republic's books, as opposed to the other four types of states/men, who are studied primarily in Book VIII.
The aristocratic state that Plato idealizes is composed of three caste-like parts: the ruling class, made up of the aforementioned philosophers-kings (who are otherwise identified as having souls of gold); the auxiliaries of the ruling caste, made up of soldiers (whose souls are made up of silver), and whose job on the state is to force on the majority the order established by the philosophers; and the majority of the people (souls of either bronze or iron), who in contrast to the two first classes are allowed to own property and produce goods for themselves, but who are obliged to sustain with their own activities their rulers, who are forbade to own property.
The aristocratic man is better represented by Plato's brand of philosopher: a man whose intellect and body have been educated for years in a rigorous system based on gymnastics and contemplation of art, and whose soul has been made calm by learning the Truth based on the Platonic Ideas. Plato says of this philosopher that he is the ideal governor of any state precisely because his soul knows truths and has experienced realities that are more powerful and joyful than those pertaining to politics. Thus this man is not tempted to abuse power in his own advantage, and through his knowledge of the true virtues, he is able to model the citizens of his state into a good life.
In contrast to historical aristocracies, Plato's resembles a meritocracy
of sorts. In it, a big government state keeps tracks of the innate character and natural skills of the citizens' children, and then directs them to the education that best suits those traits. In this manner, nothing would impede a child with a gold soul to be born to parents with silver, bronze or iron souls, and conversely, from parents with gold and silver souls, a child may be born with a bronze or an iron soul.
when, due to miscalculation on the part of its governant class, the next generation of guardians and auxiliaries includes persons of an inferior nature (the persons with souls made of iron or bronze, as opposed to the ideal guardians and auxiliaries, who have souls made of gold and silver).
In timocracy the ruling class is made up primarily of those with a warrior-like character. The governants of timocracy value power, but they seek to attain to it primarily by means of military conquest and the acquisition of honors, instead of intellectual means. Of the man who represents a timocratic state, Socrates says that his nature is primarily good: He may see in his father (who himself would correspond to an aristocractic state) a man who doesn't bother his soul with power displays and civil disputes, but instead occupies himself only with cultivating his own virtues. However, that same young man may find in other persons in his house, his mother for example, a resentment of the father's indifference to status. The future timocrat thus becomes divided in the following manner: by observing his father and listening to his reasoning, he's tempted to the flourishing of his own intellect and virtues; but influenced by his mother or other persons in his house, or city, he may become power craving. He thus assents to the intermediate portion of his soul (see Plato's scheme of the tripartite soul), the one that is aggressive and courageous (thus the timocracy's military character).
The young timocrat may be himself somewhat contemptuous towards money and money-making activity, but he becomes increasingly focused in saving his goods as he ages, since the virtues of his soul have not been purified by the salutary effects of reasoning activities and aesthetic experiences. The timocrat is further described as obedient towards authority, respectful to other free citizens, good at listening, and aggressive rather than contemptuous towards slaves.
as a system of government which distinguishes between the rich and the poor, making of the former its administrators. He gives a detailed account of the problems usually faced by the oligarchies of his days, which he considered as significantly more troubled than the former system, that of timocracy. The following are examples of such problems:
An oligarchy is originated by extending tendencies already evident in a timocracy. In contrast to platonic aristocrats, timocrats are allowed by their constitution to own property and thus to both accumulate and waste money. Because of the pleasures derived from it, money is valued over virtue, and the leaders of the state seek to alter the law to give away and accommodate to the materialistic lust of its citizens. Because of this new found appreciation for money, the governors work the constitution to restrict political power to the rich only. That is how a timocracy becomes an oligarchy.
As to the man whose character reflects that of an oligarchy, Plato says that he might have been the child of a timocratic man: The son initially emulates the father, and is ambitious and craves for fame and honor. When, however, he witnesses the problems his father faces due to those timocratic tendencies - say, he wastes public goods in a military campaign, and then is brought before the court, losing his properties after trial -, the future oligarch becomes poor. He then rejects the ambitions he had in his soul, which he now sees as harmful, and puts in their place craving for money, instead of honor, and a parcimonous cautiousness. Such men, the oligarchs, live only to enrich themselves, and through their private means they seek to fulfill only their most urgent needs. However when in charge of public goods they become quite 'generous'.
Oligarchs do, however, value at least one virtue, that of temperance and moderation - not out of an ethical principle or spiritual concern, but because by dominating wasteful tendencies they succeed in accumulating money. Thus even though he has bad desires - which Plato compares to the anarchic tendencies of the poor people in oligarchies -, by virtue of temperance the oligarch achieves to establish a fragile order in his soul. Thus the oligarch may seem, at least in appearance, superior to the majority.
, the lower class grows bigger and bigger. The poor become the winners. Diversity is supreme. People are free to do what they want and live how they want. People can even break the law if they so chose. This appears to be very similar to anarchy.
Plato uses the "democratic man" to represent democracy. The democratic man is the son of the oligarchic man. Unlike his father, the democratic man is consumed with unnecessary desires
. Plato describes necessary desires as desires that we have out of instinct
or desires that we have in order to survive. Unnecessary desires are desires we can teach ourselves to resist such as the desire for riches. The democratic man takes great interest in all the things he can buy with his money. He does whatever he wants whenever he wants to do it. His life has no order or priority.
and society
exists in chaos. Democracy is taken over by the longing for freedom. Power
must be seized to maintain order
. A champion will come along and experience power, which will cause him to become a tyrant
. The people
will start to hate him and eventually try to remove him but will realize they are not able.
The tyrannical man is the son of the democratic man. He is the worst form of man
. He is consumed by lawless desires which cause him to do many terrible things such as sleeping
with his own mother or murder
ing someone unjustly. He comes closest to complete lawlessness
. The idea of moderation
does not exist to him. He is consumed by the pleasures in life. He spends all of his money and becomes poor and leads a miserable life.
When Plato says the tyrant is a prisoner to the lawless master he means that if the tyrant should lose his power for any reason his life and the life of his family would be in great danger. The tyrant always runs the risk of being killed in revenge
for all the unjust things he has done. He becomes afraid to leave his own home and becomes trapped inside. Therefore his lawless behavior leads to his own self-imprisonment.
Classical Greece
Classical Greece was a 200 year period in Greek culture lasting from the 5th through 4th centuries BC. This classical period had a powerful influence on the Roman Empire and greatly influenced the foundation of Western civilizations. Much of modern Western politics, artistic thought, such as...
philosopher
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
Plato
Plato
Plato , was a Classical Greek philosopher, mathematician, student of Socrates, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. Along with his mentor, Socrates, and his student, Aristotle, Plato helped to lay the...
discusses five types of regimes. They are Aristocracy
Aristocracy
Aristocracy , is a form of government in which a few elite citizens rule. The term derives from the Greek aristokratia, meaning "rule of the best". In origin in Ancient Greece, it was conceived of as rule by the best qualified citizens, and contrasted with monarchy...
, Timocracy
Timocracy
Constitutional theory defines a timocracy as either:# a state where only property owners may participate in government# a government in which love of honor is the ruling principle...
, Oligarchy
Oligarchy
Oligarchy is a form of power structure in which power effectively rests with an elite class distinguished by royalty, wealth, family ties, commercial, and/or military legitimacy...
, Democracy
Democracy
Democracy is generally defined as a form of government in which all adult citizens have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives. Ideally, this includes equal participation in the proposal, development and passage of legislation into law...
and Tyranny
Tyrant
A tyrant was originally one who illegally seized and controlled a governmental power in a polis. Tyrants were a group of individuals who took over many Greek poleis during the uprising of the middle classes in the sixth and seventh centuries BC, ousting the aristocratic governments.Plato and...
. Plato also assigns a man to each of these regimes to illustrate what they stand for. The tyrannical man would represent Tyranny for example. These five regimes progressively degenerate starting with Aristocracy at the top and Tyranny at the bottom. Each regime below aristocracy is worse than the one before. Aristocracy is considered the best.
Aristocracy
AristocracyAristocracy
Aristocracy , is a form of government in which a few elite citizens rule. The term derives from the Greek aristokratia, meaning "rule of the best". In origin in Ancient Greece, it was conceived of as rule by the best qualified citizens, and contrasted with monarchy...
is the republic. This regime is ruled by philosopher king
Philosopher king
Philosopher kings are the rulers, or Guardians, of Plato's Utopian Kallipolis. If his ideal city-state is to ever come into being, "philosophers [must] become kings…or those now called kings [must]…genuinely and adequately philosophize" .-In Book VI of The Republic:Plato defined a philosopher...
, and thus is grounded on wisdom and reason. The aristocratic state, and the man whose nature corresponds to it, are the objects of Plato's analyses throughout much of The Republic's books, as opposed to the other four types of states/men, who are studied primarily in Book VIII.
The aristocratic state that Plato idealizes is composed of three caste-like parts: the ruling class, made up of the aforementioned philosophers-kings (who are otherwise identified as having souls of gold); the auxiliaries of the ruling caste, made up of soldiers (whose souls are made up of silver), and whose job on the state is to force on the majority the order established by the philosophers; and the majority of the people (souls of either bronze or iron), who in contrast to the two first classes are allowed to own property and produce goods for themselves, but who are obliged to sustain with their own activities their rulers, who are forbade to own property.
The aristocratic man is better represented by Plato's brand of philosopher: a man whose intellect and body have been educated for years in a rigorous system based on gymnastics and contemplation of art, and whose soul has been made calm by learning the Truth based on the Platonic Ideas. Plato says of this philosopher that he is the ideal governor of any state precisely because his soul knows truths and has experienced realities that are more powerful and joyful than those pertaining to politics. Thus this man is not tempted to abuse power in his own advantage, and through his knowledge of the true virtues, he is able to model the citizens of his state into a good life.
In contrast to historical aristocracies, Plato's resembles a meritocracy
Meritocracy
Meritocracy, in the first, most administrative sense, is a system of government or other administration wherein appointments and responsibilities are objectively assigned to individuals based upon their "merits", namely intelligence, credentials, and education, determined through evaluations or...
of sorts. In it, a big government state keeps tracks of the innate character and natural skills of the citizens' children, and then directs them to the education that best suits those traits. In this manner, nothing would impede a child with a gold soul to be born to parents with silver, bronze or iron souls, and conversely, from parents with gold and silver souls, a child may be born with a bronze or an iron soul.
Timocracy
Aristocracy degenerates into timocracyTimocracy
Constitutional theory defines a timocracy as either:# a state where only property owners may participate in government# a government in which love of honor is the ruling principle...
when, due to miscalculation on the part of its governant class, the next generation of guardians and auxiliaries includes persons of an inferior nature (the persons with souls made of iron or bronze, as opposed to the ideal guardians and auxiliaries, who have souls made of gold and silver).
In timocracy the ruling class is made up primarily of those with a warrior-like character. The governants of timocracy value power, but they seek to attain to it primarily by means of military conquest and the acquisition of honors, instead of intellectual means. Of the man who represents a timocratic state, Socrates says that his nature is primarily good: He may see in his father (who himself would correspond to an aristocractic state) a man who doesn't bother his soul with power displays and civil disputes, but instead occupies himself only with cultivating his own virtues. However, that same young man may find in other persons in his house, his mother for example, a resentment of the father's indifference to status. The future timocrat thus becomes divided in the following manner: by observing his father and listening to his reasoning, he's tempted to the flourishing of his own intellect and virtues; but influenced by his mother or other persons in his house, or city, he may become power craving. He thus assents to the intermediate portion of his soul (see Plato's scheme of the tripartite soul), the one that is aggressive and courageous (thus the timocracy's military character).
The young timocrat may be himself somewhat contemptuous towards money and money-making activity, but he becomes increasingly focused in saving his goods as he ages, since the virtues of his soul have not been purified by the salutary effects of reasoning activities and aesthetic experiences. The timocrat is further described as obedient towards authority, respectful to other free citizens, good at listening, and aggressive rather than contemptuous towards slaves.
Oligarchy
Plato defines oligarchyOligarchy
Oligarchy is a form of power structure in which power effectively rests with an elite class distinguished by royalty, wealth, family ties, commercial, and/or military legitimacy...
as a system of government which distinguishes between the rich and the poor, making of the former its administrators. He gives a detailed account of the problems usually faced by the oligarchies of his days, which he considered as significantly more troubled than the former system, that of timocracy. The following are examples of such problems:
- the very distribution of political power in an oligarchy, which prevents wise and virtuous, but poor, men from influencing public life, whilst opening such possibility to the rich but incompetent ones;
- an oligarchy is invariably divided, in the one hand, between very rich men, its governors; and, on the other hand, very poor men. Those latter become poor due to bad policy on the part of the state, that doesn't prevent its members from enriching through exploitive contracts, or from becoming poor by wasting around their money and goods. Thus the poor ones become either beggars or thugs imbued with anger at their condition and a revolutionary spirit which threatens the internal stability of the state;
- an oligarchy will usually perform poorly in military campaigns because the rich men, who are few, will make a small army, and they are afraid to give weapons to the majority, to the poor, due to fears of a revolution. When a revolution does ensue, and the poor ones become victorious over the rich, the former expel the latter from the city, or kill them, and then they divide their properties between one another. That is how a democracy is established.
An oligarchy is originated by extending tendencies already evident in a timocracy. In contrast to platonic aristocrats, timocrats are allowed by their constitution to own property and thus to both accumulate and waste money. Because of the pleasures derived from it, money is valued over virtue, and the leaders of the state seek to alter the law to give away and accommodate to the materialistic lust of its citizens. Because of this new found appreciation for money, the governors work the constitution to restrict political power to the rich only. That is how a timocracy becomes an oligarchy.
As to the man whose character reflects that of an oligarchy, Plato says that he might have been the child of a timocratic man: The son initially emulates the father, and is ambitious and craves for fame and honor. When, however, he witnesses the problems his father faces due to those timocratic tendencies - say, he wastes public goods in a military campaign, and then is brought before the court, losing his properties after trial -, the future oligarch becomes poor. He then rejects the ambitions he had in his soul, which he now sees as harmful, and puts in their place craving for money, instead of honor, and a parcimonous cautiousness. Such men, the oligarchs, live only to enrich themselves, and through their private means they seek to fulfill only their most urgent needs. However when in charge of public goods they become quite 'generous'.
Oligarchs do, however, value at least one virtue, that of temperance and moderation - not out of an ethical principle or spiritual concern, but because by dominating wasteful tendencies they succeed in accumulating money. Thus even though he has bad desires - which Plato compares to the anarchic tendencies of the poor people in oligarchies -, by virtue of temperance the oligarch achieves to establish a fragile order in his soul. Thus the oligarch may seem, at least in appearance, superior to the majority.
Democracy
Oligarchy then degenerates into democracy where freedom is the supreme good but freedom is also slavery. In democracyDemocracy
Democracy is generally defined as a form of government in which all adult citizens have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives. Ideally, this includes equal participation in the proposal, development and passage of legislation into law...
, the lower class grows bigger and bigger. The poor become the winners. Diversity is supreme. People are free to do what they want and live how they want. People can even break the law if they so chose. This appears to be very similar to anarchy.
Plato uses the "democratic man" to represent democracy. The democratic man is the son of the oligarchic man. Unlike his father, the democratic man is consumed with unnecessary desires
Desire (philosophy)
In philosophy, desire has been identified as a philosophical problem since Antiquity. In Plato's The Republic, Socrates argues that individual desires must be postponed in the name of the higher ideal....
. Plato describes necessary desires as desires that we have out of instinct
Instinct
Instinct or innate behavior is the inherent inclination of a living organism toward a particular behavior.The simplest example of an instinctive behavior is a fixed action pattern, in which a very short to medium length sequence of actions, without variation, are carried out in response to a...
or desires that we have in order to survive. Unnecessary desires are desires we can teach ourselves to resist such as the desire for riches. The democratic man takes great interest in all the things he can buy with his money. He does whatever he wants whenever he wants to do it. His life has no order or priority.
Tyranny
Democracy then degenerates into tyranny where no one has disciplineDiscipline
In its original sense, discipline is referred to systematic instruction given to disciples to train them as students in a craft or trade, or to follow a particular code of conduct or "order". Often, the phrase "to discipline" carries a negative connotation. This is because enforcement of order –...
and society
Society
A society, or a human society, is a group of people related to each other through persistent relations, or a large social grouping sharing the same geographical or virtual territory, subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations...
exists in chaos. Democracy is taken over by the longing for freedom. Power
Political power
Political power is a type of power held by a group in a society which allows administration of some or all of public resources, including labour, and wealth. There are many ways to obtain possession of such power. At the nation-state level political legitimacy for political power is held by the...
must be seized to maintain order
Social order
Social order is a concept used in sociology, history and other social sciences. It refers to a set of linked social structures, social institutions and social practices which conserve, maintain and enforce "normal" ways of relating and behaving....
. A champion will come along and experience power, which will cause him to become a tyrant
Tyrant
A tyrant was originally one who illegally seized and controlled a governmental power in a polis. Tyrants were a group of individuals who took over many Greek poleis during the uprising of the middle classes in the sixth and seventh centuries BC, ousting the aristocratic governments.Plato and...
. The people
People
People is a plurality of human beings or other beings possessing enough qualities constituting personhood. It has two usages:* as the plural of person or a group of people People is a plurality of human beings or other beings possessing enough qualities constituting personhood. It has two usages:*...
will start to hate him and eventually try to remove him but will realize they are not able.
The tyrannical man is the son of the democratic man. He is the worst form of man
Man
The term man is used for an adult human male . However, man is sometimes used to refer to humanity as a whole...
. He is consumed by lawless desires which cause him to do many terrible things such as sleeping
Incest
Incest is sexual intercourse between close relatives that is usually illegal in the jurisdiction where it takes place and/or is conventionally considered a taboo. The term may apply to sexual activities between: individuals of close "blood relationship"; members of the same household; step...
with his own mother or murder
Murder
Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...
ing someone unjustly. He comes closest to complete lawlessness
Antinomianism
Antinomianism is defined as holding that, under the gospel dispensation of grace, moral law is of no use or obligation because faith alone is necessary to salvation....
. The idea of moderation
Moderation
Moderation is the process of eliminating or lessening extremes. It is used to ensure normality throughout the medium on which it is being conducted...
does not exist to him. He is consumed by the pleasures in life. He spends all of his money and becomes poor and leads a miserable life.
When Plato says the tyrant is a prisoner to the lawless master he means that if the tyrant should lose his power for any reason his life and the life of his family would be in great danger. The tyrant always runs the risk of being killed in revenge
Revenge
Revenge is a harmful action against a person or group in response to a grievance, be it real or perceived. It is also called payback, retribution, retaliation or vengeance; it may be characterized, justly or unjustly, as a form of justice.-Function in society:Some societies believe that the...
for all the unjust things he has done. He becomes afraid to leave his own home and becomes trapped inside. Therefore his lawless behavior leads to his own self-imprisonment.