Aristotle wrote in Politics III the following sentences:

"But there are difficulties about these forms of government, and it will therefore be necessary to state a little more at length the nature of each of them. For he who would make a philosophical study of the various sciences, and does not regard practice only, ought not to overlook or omit anything, but to set forth the truth in every particular. Tyranny, as I was saying, is monarchy exercising the rule of a master over the political society; oligarchy is when men of property have the government in their hands; democracy, the opposite, when the indigent, and not the men of property, are the rulers. And here arises the first of our difficulties, and it relates to the distinction drawn. For democracy is said to be the government of the many. But what if the many are men of property and have the power in their hands? In like manner oligarchy is said to be the government of the few; but what if the poor are fewer than the rich, and have the power intheir hands because they are stronger? In these cases the distinction which we have drawn between these different forms of government would no longer hold good."

Do you think these three forms always apply to current governments? Are not some of these governments uncorrectly called democracy, for example, as they are really oligarchies? Are there new forms of government which Aristotle omitted?

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