The problem of classifying of forms of Government

Aristotle

How many and what forms of government existed in the history of mankind? To answer this controversial issue, it is necessary to choose correctly criteria which distinguish one form of government from another. The comparative analysis of the forms of government is a condition for their successful classification. A form of government is a kind of arrangement of supreme power in the country. Several attempts to make similar classification are known from history of philosophy.

The classification of Aristotle

                This classification is stated in the book of Aristotle "Politics"^[1]. This classification is borrowed by Aristotle at Plato entirely, but Aristotle has managed to state this classification in more systematic form.

Aristotle has named six forms of government which are allocated according to two criteria:

• Number of ruling persons.
• Valuation of the forms of government.

Classification of Niccolò Machiavelli

Niccolò Machiavelli

Only two forms of government exists in classification of Niccolò Machiavelli:

• republic
• monarchy.^[2]

My opinion about the classification of forms of Government

In my opinion, a classification of five forms of government can be drawn up:

• tyranny or kingdom

• aristocracy or oligarchy

• direct democracy

• hereditary monarchy

• representative democracy

This classification is drawn up on the basis of four criteria:

• number of governors or voters,

• kinds of ways of conflict for the power,

• kinds of the fighting groups and the place or the arena of their fight,

• kinds of vices or shortcomings of each form of government.

The second criterion is the most important of these four criteria, since types of the social conflict and social control is the main basis for construction of social structures.        

Lycurgus

Bust of Solon from the National Museum, Naples.

The Acropolis of Athens by Leo von Klenze (1846).

Representative democracy is the best from five forms of government because representative democracy has no vices, and representative democracy has only small shortcomings. But construction of representative democracy is the most difficult task. That to overcome these small shortcomings in a case of emergencies – in a case of wars, natural disaster or mass riots – parliament should give the President extraordinary powers of limited duration. Society rolls down to the archaic forms of government – tyranny, oligarchy or ochlocracy in case of failure of similar construction of representative democracy, as it happened in 1917 in Russia under Bolsheviks. Ochlocracy is a worst from five forms of government, For example, ochlocracy is power of criminals and terrorists today in some Arab countries like Libya. The USA and other western countries have crushed by the military way of such tyrants as Muammar Gaddafi and Saddam Hussein, the USA and other western countries gave weapon to terrorists. As a result these tyrants have been killed or executed, but the power in this Arab countries has passed to terrorists of the Islamic State and these Arab countries have plunged into the abyss of civil war. The West wanted to play the similar scenario in Syria, the West wanted to take away at Russia the last naval base abroad, the West wanted to overthrow Bashar al-Assad who is considered in the West as protege of Russia. But Russia has interfered, Russia has sent the troops in Syria and Bashar al-Assad has almost beaten terrorists with military support of Russia. A conclusion consists of these events that the ochlocracy is worse than tyranny because the ochlocracy leads to civil war often, because the ochlocracy brings to power by criminals, because the number of the victims of a civil war under ochlocracy are more, than the number of the victims of state terror under tyranny.

Tyranny has been invented in the countries of the Ancient East, the aristocracy has been invented by Lycurgus in Sparta, direct democracy has been invented in Athens, a hereditary monarchy in the form of custom about a succession to the throne, about transfer of a throne to the eldest son or elder brother has been invented in the Grand Duchy of Moscow, representative democracy has been invented in Great Britain and the USA.

Russia is a unique country where the authorities tried to enter all five forms of government in turn during 20 century. A hereditary monarchy was under Nicholas II of Russia till 1905. Nicholas II of Russia tried to construct representative democracy in the form of constitutional monarchy from 1905 to February, 1917, but this attempt of the emperor has ended by a failure. The Russian parliament, a multi-party system has been created for this purpose. Political freedoms and free elections are guaranteed for this purpose, but the constitution hasn't been adopted, and the right of appointment of members of the government remained in the emperor's hands, but not in the hands of parliament. The diarchy of Russian Provisional government and Soviet power has been established from March to November, 1917, elections to the Constituent assembly which had to choose the form of government have been held.

Bolsheviks have seized power in October, 1917 and Vladimir Lenin has constructed oligarchy where "the Lenin guard" instead of the Russian nobility became as privileged layer, opponents of Bolshevist oligarchy have been physically destroyed during civil war and Cheka terror. Bolsheviks have destroyed the ochlocracy of Nestor Makhno in Ukraine. General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Joseph Stalin has constructed tyranny in 1937, there was a change of elite again – replacement at top of the power of "Lenin guard" on the Nomenklatura at the same time. General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Nikita Khrushchev has restored oligarchy, Nikita Khrushchev arrested and ordered to execute Lavrentiy Beria as new applicant in tyrants. The merit of General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev consists that he has loosened oligarchy to the basis. First president of Russian Federation Boris Yeltsin has destroyed oligarchy and Boris Yeltsin has established representative democracy. Second president of Russian Federation Vladimir Putin has destroyed an ochlocracy and the center of civil war in Chechnya, and then Vladimir Putin has established more conservative and authoritative variant of representative democracy, Vladimir Putin has brought order after Boris Yeltsin's reforms.

Citations and references