Refresher Course on Types of Government

Why did all these people go to Washington, D.C.? Did they go just to break things? Or just because one person asked them to? Some say they went to take down our government. If that is true, then what type of rule or government do they want to replace it with? As outlined in Machiavelli’s The Prince: there are three kinds of government: principality, aristocracy and democracy. But, others say there are six types of government: three are good, principality, aristocracy and democracy; the three are bad are tyranny, oligarchy and anarchy. The good types are fragile and can easily slip into one of the bad. This happens when a democracy turns into anarchy, and aristocracy becomes an oligarchy or a principality becomes a tranny. An example of this slippage of one government becoming another could be seen in our own country last week. What if they had succeeded in their mission? What kind of government would we be ruled by today had they succeeded—anarchy? Some say democracy is the dictatorship of the majority; you know like 51 percent wins over 49 percent. There are those who think, as Plato, that democracy is unjust because it gives unequal people an equal say, allowing the unqualified to out vote the “experts” and allows the ill-informed to say my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge. This is why we need better education for our people, with a more than one class on civics. Then there is theocracy, in which priests or clergy impose god’s laws, according to their own interpretations of a man-made theology. Then there is Epistocracy, is a form of government that sees all as equals, but only those who are knowledgeable about government can vote, it’s known as the wise are allowed to vote or have control, like a benevolent dictatorship. There are a lot of good augments that can be made for our democracy just the way it is, and if we do change, it should be for the betterment of the people, the 99 percent, not those with all the money with no worries other than how to make more and protect what they have. Two good books to read on this subject are: Machiavelli’s The Prince and Josh Sheldon’s Democracy: A User’s Guide.