Plato's Five Regimes

In my novel, "Cottonwood Pass," a rogue billionaire attempts to establish a new form of government in the United States by hastening its decline into disorder, social warfare, and financial chaos. The character, H. Greeley Essington III, uses Plato's Five Regimes, as one of his three operational blueprints to achieve his goal.

Plato's Five Regimes are as follows:

• Aristocracy -- a Republic that is governed by a wise Philosopher-King
• Timocracy -- The Republic devolves downward into a state where the military is in charge and power is the key to success.
• Oligarchy -- Timocracy descends to a lower form of government where wealth replaces power as the necessary element for success and in the two class system, the rich govern the poor.
• Democracy -- As the the poorer class grows and grows and the rich become smaller in numbers, the Oligarchy degenerates into a democracy where the freedom to do anything and everything is valued. Leaders are chosen by the everyday people to produce rules of behavior and to decide when someone is harmed.
• Tyranny -- Finally, Democracy disintegrates into chaos, as each person pursues their own freedom in conflict with others and social values and societal discipline is replaced by personal desire. In this atmosphere, a strong ruler emerges who, through force, imposes an order against the will of the people. The Tyrant governs on whim and favors and produces a lawless state where there is order, but no one is safe from the Tyrant's henchmen.

Frighteningly familiar?