Plato's Four Forms of Government and Understanding Democracy

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Part 1
The four forms of government described by Plato
1. Timocracy
This is the type of government having a ruler who is involved in warfare. It is the
government of honor. The person-in-charge of the government is honored by the members of the
public (Ridgeway 265). This type of government is similar to aristocracy but the country is
involved more in warfare. The people in this kind of government are in constant chaos and
inequality within the state.
2. Oligarchy
This is the type of government in which few rich groups of people rule other poor citizens
in the country. This means that the poor are ruled by the rich people within the state. It is the
natural evolvement from the timocracy type of the government because it involved indulged war
for the accumulation of wealth (Lesses 147). The rich people in this form of government rule and
suppress the poor people for wealth. The poor people in this type of government are not armed
because the rich fear they will turn on and stand against them. People in this government live in
fear of crime due to high rates of poverty.
3. Democracy
According to Plato, the democratic government is the one in which each person needs to
be rich. It is formed after the poor people come together to form their government. It starts when

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the rich people loathe poor people and allow them to have a revolution (Klosko 341). The
revolutionists rise and either exile the rich people. Thereafter, they form a new government of
freedom and make sure that there is no compulsion for anything. For example, in this form of
government, one can choose not to join the army team despite being able. Everyone decides what
to do and nobody is forced to do anything.
4. Tyranny
This is the type of government in which power occurs only to granted ruler. The ruler
becomes so cruel and corrupt. He uses his power to grab wealth from others. They do so for their
interest without caring about other people’s welfare. The ruler is not interested in working over
the common goods but obtain wealth from other people by force or through corruption. The law
applied in this form of the government is that no one is exempt from the law even the ruler. The
law is so vital because it makes sure that the people in power are not corrupt.
Part 2
Based on the quote, Plato understands democracy as freedom from oppression. His
objective is to show how worse this government is because he thinks poor people aim to be rich.
He assumes that the main reason for this government is to make poor people rich and free from
oppression. He suggests the main objective of this government is freedom among the
revolutionists (Adam 270). He thinks this is one of the worst governments as everyone is striving
to become rich just like their previous oppressors. Plato says, “Poor people will soon form a
worst government called democracy”. In this statement, he thinks that the poor are just driven by
the rights of freedom and acquire wealth. If I were called to defend the democracy based on his
saying, I would defend it using the three aspects.