Plato ranked forms of government, and democracy ranked fourth in his hierarchy. Plato, a smart guy but limited in his powers of observation (since he didn’t travel much and didn’t live very long compared to the history of earth), saw it this way:
In his work “The Republic,” Plato outlined five types of regimes, ranking them from best to worst:
1. Aristocracy
2. Timocracy
3. Oligarchy
4. Democracy
5. Tyranny
Aristocracy, ruled by philosopher-kings, was considered the ideal form of government by Plato. He believed that these rulers, being both wise and virtuous (if such a person can be found, and if in their virtuousness they can survive the attacks of the less scrupulous), would govern in the best interest of society, without all of the constraints of bureaucracy and mixed motives of politicians. Nobody falls for a lie if no one is given a platform to lie publicly. Awesomeness rules. Nothing else is needed.
Timocracy, a system valuing honor and military glory, was seen as the next best option. This regime emerges when the ruling class begins to value wealth and personal interests over virtue, or cannot find the virtuous willing to be “appointed“ and received. The rulers in a timocracy are motivated by ambition for power and glory rather than by wisdom or the common good. Allegedly, the early United States’ desire to make “landowners” to be the ones with voting rights was an attempt at Plato’s Timocracy – not just greedy bias.
Oligarchy, where the wealthy hold power, ranked third. In this system, the accumulation of wealth becomes more important than virtue or wisdom.
Democracy was ranked fourth by Plato. He was highly critical of this system, viewing it as a regime where freedom reigns supreme but often leads to chaos. In a democracy, Plato argued, everyone is free to do as they wish, but this lack of discipline can result in a society without clear priorities or aims. Leadership is optional and complying to leadership is rare due to corrupt or conflicting human motives.
Tyranny, considered the worst form of government, emerges from the excesses of democracy.
Plato’s critique of democracy was based on his observations of the Athenian democracy of his time. His concerns centered around the potential for bloviating politicians to convince the masses with shallow and deceitful self-serving arguments, leading to broken promises and amnesia of the low-information masses, while the cycle starts all over again.
There are a multitude of ways to view “governance” of course. It would not be difficult to find fatal flaws and exceptions to just about any you or I would suggest as superior – as long as humans are involved.
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The downside of “no one to talk to” in the decentralized world of Bitcoin is that the chain ate a big chunk of my bitcoin when the coinbase recipient’s address changed between a previous send and later send. It’s still on the chain obviously, and can be seen, but not an obvious way to retrieve it. “No ruler” isn’t helping me! Where is a bureaucracy when you need one?!
