Aristotle classified six forms of states and believed that these keep revolving in a cyclic order. The cycle begins with monarchy which soon gets perverted into tyranny, which gets replaced by aristocracy — the rule of a few wise and able people. Aristocracy soon gets perverted into oligarchy — the rule of the rich, to be replaced by the rule of the people or the majority — polity. Polity gets perverted into democracy — the mob rule. Democracy, in the final turn, gets replaced by monarchy and the cycle begins all over again. |