Plato Said There Are Five Types Of Regimes; Democracy Is One Of Them

On 3 January 2020, The Honorable Donald J. Trump, President of the United States, shared that “we do not seek regime change” in Iran and referenced the “Iranian regime’s aggression in the region,….” 

A challenge for the public is how to appreciate what constitutes a government and what constitutes a regime; when is a country defined as a regime and when is a country defined as a government.  There are few consistencies. 

Regimes are presented as illegitimate by politicians and then absorbed by media while governments are presented legitimate by politicians and then absorbed by media. 

From Merriam-Webster Dictionary: “Regime: mode of rule or management; a form of government; a government in power; a period of rule.” 

From Oxford English Dictionary: Regime: “a government, especially an authoritarian one.” 

From Wikipedia: “In politics, a regime (also known as “régime”, from the original French spelling) is the form of government or the set of rules, cultural or social norms, etc. that regulate the operation of a government or institution and its interactions with society.” 

From Wikipedia: “The Classical Greek philosopher Plato discusses five types of regimes (Republic, Book VIII).  They are Aristocracy, Timocracy, Oligarchy, Democracy, and Tyranny.  These five regimes progressively degenerate starting with Aristocracy at the top and Tyranny at the bottom.” 

United States policy has been historically to focus officially upon changing the behavior of a regime rather than changing leadership of a regime while unofficially using all means available to procure regime change.   

There are countries where regime change has been an official goal of the United States.  The policy of changing leadership or changing behavior of leadership is fluid as circumstances dictate. 

Searching “regime” in the Internet site for the United States Department of State, there are references to Assad Regime (Syria), Maduro Regime (Venezuela), Regime in Iran, Cuban regime, Putin regime (Russia), North Korea regime and Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega’s Regime. 

The government of Sudan is on the list of state sponsors of international terrorism, one of four countries (Iran, Syria, North Korea, Sudan).   

President Trump nor the United States Department of State references the government of Sudan as a regime; President Trump does not reference the government of North Korea as a regime.  Unknown if the President has referenced the “Putin regime.”      

President Trump refers to Iran as Iran; The Honorable Mike Pompeo, United States Secretary of State, when speaking has referred to the Islamic Republic of Iran, which while the official name of the country, represents a deliberate effort by Secretary Pompeo to de-legitimize the type of government in Tehran, the capital city.  The linguistic strategy by Secretary Pompeo has a delicate balance between insulting 84 million Iranians rather than 1.9 billion Muslims throughout the world.