TABLE OF CONTENT

Table of Content...................................................................................................................i
Introduction..........................................................................................................................1
1.1. Book Eight of the Republic ..........................................................................................2
1.1.1. The Types of States....................................................................................................3
1.1.1.1. Timocracy ..............................................................................................................3
1.1.1.2 Oligarchy..................................................................................................................5
1.1.1.3. Democracy..............................................................................................................6
1.1.1.4. Tyranny...................................................................................................................7
2.1. Relevance of Book Eight of the Republic Today ........................................................8
Conclusion.........................................................................................................................11
Bibliography......................................................................................................................12

i
 INTRODUCTION
Plato was one of the early stars of Western philosophy born around 427 BC., in Athens. He
studied under the great Greek thinker, Socrates. After years of travel and study, Plato founded
the Academy in his native land, Athens in 387 B.C.; it became a famous hotbed of philosophical
and scientific discussion. Plato’s writings mostly take the form of dialogues, or “dialectics,” in
which knowledge is revealed as two characters ask and answer questions of each other. (Socrates
was often one of the characters and often the spokesman.) One of Plato's most famous works,
which can be attributed to the lessons he learned from Socrates, was The Republic. Traditionally,
Republic is divided into ten books. The principal characters in the Republic are Cephalus,
Polemarchus (son of Cephalus), Thrasymachus (a Sophist), Socrates, Glaucon and Adeimantus
(brothers to Plato). Cephalus appears in the introduction, Polemarchus drops at the end of the
first argument and Thrasymachus is reduced to silence at the close of the first book. The main
discussion is carried on by Socrates, Glaucon, and Adeimantus. Among the company are Lysias
and Euthydemus, the sons of Cephalus and brothers of Polemarchus, an unknown Charmantides–
these are mute auditors or observers; also there is Cleitophon, who once interrupts and he
appears as the friend and ally of Thrasymachus.1
The Republic (Greek: Politeia; Latin: Res Publica) was written around 375 BC, in which Plato
tackles the themes of justice, the order and character of the just city-state, and the just man. It is
Plato's best-known work, and has proven to be one of the world's most influential works of
philosophy and political theory. The dialogue explores two central questions.  The first question
is “what is justice?”  Socrates addresses this question both in terms of political communities and
in terms of the individual person or soul.  He does this to address the second and driving question
of the dialogue: “is the just person happier than the unjust person?” or “what is the relation of
justice to happiness?” Thus, given the two central questions of the discussion, Plato’s
philosophical concerns in the dialogue are ethical and political. Furthermore, on the way to
defending the just life, Socrates considers a tremendous variety of subjects such as theories of
justice, competing views of human happiness, education, the nature and importance of
philosophy and philosophers, knowledge, the structure of reality, the Forms, the virtues and
vices, good and bad souls, good and bad political regimes, the family, the role of women in

1
Plato, The Republic, http://www.idph.net 18 May, 2002.

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society, the role of art in society, and even the afterlife. 2 In order to attempt to understand the
dialogue’s argument as a whole one is required to grapple with these subjects. However, we will
simply plunge to our own area of concern, which is trying to give a bird-eye view of a part of the
work, that is, book 8. In other words, this work is going to be divided into two parts. In the first
part, we will be attempting to give a synopsis of book 8 of The Republic while in the second part
we will be trying to answer the question, how can book 8 of The Republic be relevant in our
context, Cameroon in this case? In line with this, the method employed will be analytical.
1.1. BOOK EIGHT OF THE REPUBLIC (543A- 569C)
With the end of the discussion of the nature and role of knowledge; concluding Book VII, Plato
enters Book VIII with the summary of the main features of a the perfect state and Glaucon
recalls Socrates had previously promised the company to discuss the four principal forms of
defective, or less-than-perfect, states by telling Socrates that: “…Concerning the remaining
regimes, as I remember, you asserted that there are four forms. It is worthwhile to have an
account of and whose mistakes are worth seeing; and similarly with the men who are like these
regimes; so that, when we have seen them all and agreed which man is best and which worst, we
could consider whether the best man is happiest and the worst most wretched, or
whether it is otherwise. 'And just as I was asking which four regimes you meant, Polemarchus
and Adeimantus interrupted. That's how you picked up the argument and got here." 3 Socrates
then goes ahead to discuss these forms, or political constitutions, in turn. They are timocracy
(rule for the sake of honor), oligarchy (rule of the few), democracy (majority rule of the people),
and tyranny (rule by a dictator). Socrates agrees to characterize these forms of government in
order, supplementing each discussion with a description of the typical individual citizen (soul) in
each kind of state. Hence the discussion proceeds from the timocratic state to the timocratic man,
from the oligarchic state to the oligarchic man, and so forth. 4 He equally demonstrates how one
flawed constitution gives rise to another. In the first phase of the analysis, the comparatively
unobjectionable forms of monarchy and aristocracy yield to timocracy, or rule for honor's sake.
In this flawed form of government, money and the status it confers are the principal evildoers.
The spirit of contention and ambition is common in such a form of government. Ego and greed
characterize the timocratic individual. In his soul, while he grows up, the rational element yields
2
Plato, The Republic, The Internet Encyclopedia Of Philosophy (IEP).
3
Plato, The Republic, (544a-b). 
4
Ibid, (545a-c). 
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to passion and appetite. (We should recall here Socrates's earlier division of the soul into three
parts: the rational part, spirited part and appetitive part.)5 Note that book VIII of the Republic
abounds in pictures of life and fanciful allusions; the use of metaphorical language is carried to a
greater extent than anywhere else in the Republic. In line with this we remark that; (1) the notion
of democracy is expressed in a sort of equality among unequals; (2) the free and easy ways of
men and animals, which are characteristic of liberty, as foreign mercenaries and universal
mistrust are of the tyrant. Still more remarkable are the corresponding portraits of individuals:
there is the family picture of the father and mother and the old servant of the timocratic man and
the outward respectability and inherent meanness of the oligarchical; the uncontrolled licence
and freedom of the democrat, in which the young Alcibiades seems to be depicted, doing right or
wrong as he pleases, and who at last, like the prodigal, goes into a far country (note here the play
of language by which the democratic man is himself represented under the image of a State
having a citadel and receiving embassies); and there is the wild-beast nature, which breaks loose
in his successor. Socrates, Glaucon and Adeimantus are the main participants in this book VIII.
1.1.1. THE TYPES OF STATES
Now that Socrates has finished describing the just city, he returns to the interrupted task of
describing the four unjust constitutions of city and man. In addition to the aristocracy that we
have been discussing for the past six books, and the philosopher-king who single handedly
embodies and rules this government, Socrates identifies four other city-man pairs: there is a
timocracy, oligarchy, democracy and tyranny.
1.1.1.1. TIMOCRACY
The starting point is aristocracy (ruled by a philosopher-king); a just government dominated by
the wisdom-loving element. When its social structure breaks down and enters civil war, it is
replaced by timocracy. Plato calls his 'timocracy' the 'Cretan or Spartan (someone from Sparta 6)
kind praised by many.’ Timocracy is a form of Government which the rulers are motivated by
ambition or a love of honour. Socrates admits that a timocracy will naturally arise from the ideal
5
Plato, The Republic, (543c-544b). 
6
Sparta was a prominent city-state in ancient Greece. In antiquity, the city-state was known as
Lacedaemon, while the name Sparta referred to its main settlement on the banks of the Eurotas
River in Laconia, in south-eastern Peloponnese. Around 650 BC, it rose to become the dominant
military land-power in ancient Greece. Given its military pre-eminence, Sparta was recognized
as the leading force of the unified Greek military during the Greco-Persian Wars, in rivalry with
the rising naval power of Athens. Sparta was the principal enemy of Athens during the
Peloponnesian War (between 431 and 404 BC), from which it emerged victorious.
[3]
state of aristocracy. He foresees that the guardians will not be able to prevent the mixture of
classes and therefore the quality of citizens will decline. This degradation will foster a toxic
environment in which children will receive an undesirable education. The public will teach
children to abandon their rational principles and cultivate their passionate and appetitive aspects
resulting in a population of arrogant and ambition citizens who will seek wars against their
neighbours and even against one another because of their ambition and love of glory. This city
will be militaristic. The timocratic individual will have a strong spirited part in his soul and will
pursue honor, power, and success7.  A timocracy, in choosing its leaders, is inclining rather to the
more high-spirited and simple-minded type, who are better suited for war. The governors of
timocracy value power, which they seek to attain primarily by means of military conquest and
the acquisition of honours, rather than intellectual means. Plato characterizes timocracy as a
mixture of the elements of two different regime types — aristocracy and oligarchy. Just like the
leaders of Platonic aristocracies, timocratic governors will apply great effort in gymnastics and
the arts of war, as well as the virtue that pertains to them, that of courage. They will also be
contemptuous towards manual activities and trade and will lead a life in public communion. Just
like oligarchs, however, they will yearn for material wealth and will not trust thinkers to be
placed in positions of power. Timocrats will have a tendency to accumulate wealth in pernicious
ways, and hide their possessions from public view. They will also be spendthrift and hedonistic.
Because their voluptuous nature will not be, like that of philosopher-kings, pacified in a
philosophical education, law can only be imposed onto them by means of force.
Of the man who represents a timocratic state, Socrates says that his nature is primarily good: He
may see in his father (who he would correspond to an aristocratic state) a man who doesn't
bother his soul with power displays and civil disputes, but instead busies himself only with
cultivating his own virtues. However, that same young man may find in other persons in his
house a resentment of the father's indifference to status. Thus, by observing his father and
listening to his reasoning, he's tempted to the flourishing of his own intellect and virtues; but
influenced by others in his house or city, he may become power craving. He thus assents to the
portion of his soul that is intermediate between reason and desire, the one that is aggressive and
courageous (thus the timocracy's military character)8.

7
Plato, The Republic, (549a).
8
Cf, Plato’s tripartite theory of the soul
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The young timocrat may himself be somewhat contemptuous towards money and money-making
activity, but he becomes increasingly focused in saving his goods as he ages, since the virtues of
his soul have not been purified by the salutary effects of reasoning activities and aesthetic
experiences that Plato recommends to the high class. The timocrat is further described as
obedient towards authority, respectful to other free citizens, good at listening, and aggressive
rather than contemptuous towards slaves.9
1.1.1.2 OLIGARCHY
As the emphasis on honor is compromised by wealth accumulation, it is replaced by oligarchy.
Socrates defines an oligarchy as a society “in which the rich rule and the poor man has no part in
(the) ruling office.”10 This regime arises because of the hoarding or amassing of wealth that
begins during the timocratic regime. As time passes, wealth becomes more valued than virtue,
and the society changes from a state of honor-seeking warriors to one of money-grubbing
businessmen. The oligarchic government is dominated by the desiring element, in which the rich
are the ruling class. Therefore, as the love of money and wealth grows, the constitution will
change so that ruling is based entirely on wealth. Whoever has wealth and property above a
certain amount will be allowed to take part in ruling, and whoever has less than this will have no
say in government. This city has five faults according to Socrates. First, it is ruled by people who
are not fit to rule. Second, it is not one city but two: one city of rich people and one of poor.
These two factions do not make up a single city because they are always plotting against one
another, and do not have common aims. Third, this city cannot fight a war because in order to
fight, the rulers would have to arm the people, but they are even more afraid of the people—who
hate them—than of outsiders. Fourth, it has no principle of specialization. The rulers also have
peripheral money-making occupations. This city is the first to allow the greatest evil: people who
live in the city without belonging to any class or having any role; people who are not producers,
warriors, or rulers. This group includes beggars and criminals. Socrates calls these people
“drones” and divides them into two sorts: harmless and dangerous, or “stinging.” 11 Furthermore,
money is made a condition of office, so that the Principle of Specialization is overthrown; hence
jobs are in the hands of people not suited for them, and some have no social task at all. This is
inefficient and also leads to breakdown not just of fraternal feelings but of any conception of the
9
Plato, The Republic (545-550)
10
Plato, The Republic, (550d)
11
Plato, The Republic, (552c, 551a-552a)
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common good: poor and rich form in effect two cities in what is only nominally a single city.
The poor, with nothing to spend, are obviously not contributing to any common good; but, Plato
insists acutely, neither are the rich, who do spend, but only for themselves and on what they
want, not in accordance with any public policy.12
The corresponding man for an oligarchy is a thrifty money-maker. He is a timocrat’s son, and at
first emulates him. But then some disgraceful and unfair mishap befalls his father. The son,
traumatized and impoverished, turns greedily toward making money and slowly amasses
property again. His reason and spirit become slaves to appetite, as his only drive becomes the
desire to make more money. Reason can only reason about how to make more money, while
spirit only values wealth and has as its sole ambition more wealth. This man has evil inclinations
but these are held in check because he is careful about his wealth; he does not want to engage in
activity that would threaten him with the loss of what he has managed to build up from scratch
1.1.1.3. DEMOCRACY
The gap between rich and poor widens, culminating in a revolt by the underclass majority,
establishing a democracy. Democracy emphasizes maximum freedom, so power is distributed
evenly. It is also dominated by the desiring element, but in an undisciplined, unrestrained way.
The populism of the democratic government leads to mob rule. This is to say that, the insatiable
desire to attain more money leads to a practice of lending money at high interests. Many in the
city are driven to utter poverty while a few thrive. The impoverished sit idly in the city hating
those with wealth and plotting revolution. The rich, in turn, pretend not to notice the dissatisfied
masses. Finally, agitated by the stinging drones, the poor revolt, killing some rich, and expelling
the rest. They set up a new constitution in which everyone remaining has an equal share in ruling
the city. They give out positions of power pretty much by lot, with no notice of who is most fit
for what role. In this city the guiding priority is freedom. Everyone is free to say what they like
and to arrange their life as they please. There is complete license. We, therefore, find the greatest
variety of character traits in this city. What we do not find is any order or harmony. No one
occupies the appropriate roles and this makes Plato to call democracy a society-shop because of
the citizens' lack of conformity to one way of life. Such a tolerant society permits weakening of
what Plato sees as natural hierarchies in actually existing societies: old and young, male and
female, free and slave. In order to describe the corresponding man, Socrates must explain the

12
Ibid, (551a-552d)
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difference between necessary and unnecessary desires. Necessary desires are those we cannot
train ourselves to overcome, the ones that indicate true human needs (e.g. the desire for enough
sustenance to survive). Unnecessary desires are those which we can train ourselves to overcome
(e.g., desire for luxurious items and lifestyle). The oligarchic man is ruled by his necessary
desires, but his son, the democratic man, is soon overcome by unnecessary desires. Whereas the
father was a miser, that is, a person who hoards wealth and spends as little money as possible,
only wanted to hoard his money, the son comes to appreciate all the lavish pleasures that money
can buy. As a matter of fact the democratic individual comes to pursue all sorts of bodily desires
excessively and allows his appetitive part to rule his soul.  He comes about when his bad
education allows him to transition from desiring money to desiring bodily and material goods.
The democratic individual has no shame and no self-discipline. Thus, the democratic man, then,
is the offspring of the oligarchic man. Both are driven by desire, but not by the same kind of
desire. As earlier mentioned, the oligarchic man is driven by a “necessary” desire for money,
which can then be used to procure other goods. The democratic man, however, finds himself
driven by any kind of desire whatsoever, even—or especially—“unnecessary” desires. As a
consequence, epithumia (Greek for ‘desire or longing’) has an ever stronger sovereignty over the
democratic soul.13
1.1.1.4. TYRANNY
The final regime-type discussed in Book VIII is tyranny. Tyranny is a rule by one who has
absolute power. Tyranny arises out of democracy when the desire for freedom to do what one
wants becomes extreme.  The freedom or license aimed at in the democracy becomes so extreme
that any limitations on anyone’s freedom seem unfair.  Socrates points out that when freedom is
taken to such an extreme it produces its opposite, slavery.  The tyrant comes about by presenting
himself as a champion of the people against the class of the few people who are wealthy.  The
tyrant is forced to commit a number of acts to gain and retain power: accuse people falsely,
attack his kinsmen, bring people to trial under false pretenses, kill many people, exile many
people, and purport to cancel the debts of the poor to gain their support.  The tyrant eliminates
the rich, brave, and wise people in the city since he perceives them as threats to his power. 
Socrates indicates that the tyrant faces the dilemma to either live with worthless people or with
good people who may eventually depose him and chooses to live with worthless people.  The

13
Plato, The Republic, (557a -560d)
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tyrant ends up using mercenaries as his guards since he cannot trust any of the citizens. The
tyrant also needs a very large army and will spend the city’s money, and will not hesitate to kill
14
members of his own family if they resist his ways. But what about the tyrannical person?
Socrates ends Book VIII without giving us the portrait of the corresponding man for this regime.
This long psychological portrait is saved for the next book.
From the above we see that there is a cycle of natural changes in regimes and in generation of
peoples.
2.1. RELEVANCE OF BOOK EIGHT OF THE REPUBLIC TODAY
In book eight of Plato’s Republic, he describes the four different types of constitutions stemming
from the best being the aristocracy, also known as the kallipolis (beautiful city). They are
timocracy, oligarchy, democracy and finally the last and worst of the cities is the tyranny. The
cities, and therefore the corresponding types of the soul degenerate because of the character of the
ruler as Plato tells us at the beginning of book eight: “And do you realize that of necessity there are
as many forms of human character as there are of constitutions? Or do you think that constitutions
are born ‘from oak or rock’ and not from the characters of the people who live in the cities
governed by them, which tip the scales, so to speak, and drag the rest along with them?” 15 Of
course, the question now arises: whether we today (taking Cameroon as a case study) have
timocracy, oligarchy, democracy or tyranny. Beginning with timocracy, we noticed that it is a
regime in which honor, ambition, courage and manly virtue are dominant. Some characteristics
of timocracy are: Citizens are divided according to classes; No majority rule; Heritance is the
type of succession; Parliament is sometimes present; Constitution is sometimes present in; high
level of military rule; rulers and members are motivated by the ambition of honor and glory.
From the above features of Timocracy, we cannot place Cameroon under this form of
government. However, it must be acknowledged that our government is clouded by some
features of this constitution. In fact, the government is so ambitious and desires to remain in
power for the sake of honour and glory. This is accounted by the fact that some government
officials are very old in age but yet still in power, for instance, the president of the country, Paul
Biya is 86 years old and has already served as president for 38years, the president of the senate,
Marcel Niat is 86 years old, the doyen of the senate is 101 years and so on. Furthermore, we see
that in Cameroon, there is poor performance in military campaign: the Anglophone Crisis;
14
Plato, The Republic, (562a – 569c)
15
Ibid, (543d)
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people are being killed by the military mercilessly whereas the military is equally being wiped
out by a small group of armed separatist, who are unskilled. Also, hundreds of military men have
been killed by the Boko Haram terrorist group.
More so, the current Anglophone crisis is due to class division; where the “minority”
Anglophone feels rejected and abandoned especially when it comes to ruler ship and the
common good. In other words, there is unequal distribution of power and wealth. This conform
to the features of oligarchy, which is a rule motivated by acquisition of wealth and personal gain-
thereby creating a society divided between rich and poor. The very distribution of political
power, which prevents wise and virtuous, but poor, men from influencing public life, while
giving such possibility to the rich but incompetent ones; has caused instability in the country.
The poor underclass grows and many of them become either beggars or thugs (hoodlum) imbued
with anger at their condition and a revolutionary spirit which threatens the stability of the state
from within and poor performance in military campaigns: because the rich, who are few, will
make a small army, and they are afraid to give weapons to the majority (the poor) due to fears of
a revolution.
Furthermore, in our country, people have tended to desire unnecessary things (luxurious things
and lifestyle.) The current instability in the country can be attributed to the fact that the
population is in dire need of qualitative amenities, they are fade up with the bare minimum, they
aim for a higher lifestyle which entails going above the normal and that is why they are rebelling
and want to choose a charismatic leader who can give them all they need, thus there is chaos in
the society. In fact they desire a democratic regime, where everyone is free and equal. The
people long for freedom and this is actually what the Anglophone separatists desire now. In other
words they want democracy. On the other hand, the rulers of the country are presently concerned
with their money rather than how they can help the people. This is accounted by the fact that
even in the midst of the crisis, the former minister of defense, Edgard Alain M. was caught with
over 1 billion FCFA, and he deliberately set it on fire. 16 This ties with what Plato believes, that
the democratic man is more concerned with his money over how he can help the people. He does
whatever he wants whenever he wants to do it. His life has no order or priority.
Finally, in Cameroon, in order to maintain peace and tranquility, in order to stop the crisis, those
in authority have seized power and become tyrants. Notice that the tyrant is consumed by lawless

16
https://www.businessincameroon.com, December 29, 2019
[9]
desires and the urge to free the state from freedom which causes him to do many terrible things
such as murdering, lying and stealing. He comes closest to complete lawlessness. Here, note how
the president and ministers of Cameroon have deployed troops to the Northwest and Southwest
regions and the consequences are what we have today, about 3000-5000 deaths17. In addition, the
tyrant will steal and conquer to satiate his desires, but will eventually overreach and force unto
himself a fear of those around him, effectively limiting his own freedom. It is worth noting that
many ministers in Cameroon are feared by many people (example Atanga Nji Paul). However,
they have equally limited their freedom and that’s why they cannot step their feet into the
Northwest or Southwest regions of Cameroon freely, that is, without being accompanied by a
myriad of military men.
From the foregoing, we can immediately conclude that what Plato tries to debunk in book 8 of
the republic is actually lingering in Cameroon. Therefore, we can note how the republic of Plato
in general and book 8 in particular, which was written in c.375 BC, is still very much relevant
and valid today. As a matter of fact, we notice above that the government of Cameroon cuts
across all the four types of regimes or government mentioned by Plato in book 8 of the republic.
That is, we can find features of timocracy, oligarchy, democracy and tyranny in the government
of Cameroon. Basing on this, I will like to remark that, the state of Cameroon needs to revisit its
constitutions, re-elect its leaders and above all educate its citizens on the best kind of government
that will suit its context. In fact we must get through and beyond the jumble or mixture of
particular events, specific personalities and personal ambitions, the merely transient forces and
factions, to grasp the constant and lawful, the real structure of social relations and needs which
reflects a just society.

CONCLUSION
This work aimed at presenting a synopsis of Book VIII of the Republic of Plato in which we saw
the different forms of government considered by Plato to be bad. That is, timocracy, oligarchy,
democracy and tyranny and their corresponding souls or individuals. According to this book,
timocracy is considered the best though it cannot be compared to the best of all regimes, which is
Aristocracy, which has been discussed in the previous books. On the other hand, Tyranny is

The Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights (RWCHR) and Centre for Human Rights
17

and Democracy in Africa (CHRDA), June, 2019.

[10]
considered the worst form of government. We equally examined how relevant this section of the
Republic could be to us Cameroonians.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Annas Julia, An Introduction to Plato’s Republic, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1981.
Annas Julia, Platonic Ethics Old and New, Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1999.
Bloom Allan, The Republic Of Plato, Second Edition Translated with Notes and an Interpretive
Essay, United States Of America, 1968.

[11]
R. J. Rowan, A Guide To Plato’s Republic, Department of Philosophy University of British
Columbia, 1975.
Sean Hannan, Notes on Plato’s Republic V-X, Autumn 2014.

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