A.C Grayling is a 21-century British philosopher. In his text “democracy and its crisis”, he details the theories for possible failings of democracy through various political theorists. He mentions that this could happen through defective institutions, citizens not educated enough to make informed decisions or people with too much power. 

In this chapter, he speaks about Plato, Aristotle and Machiavelli and starts with Plato’s attack on democracy. He fears that democracy will rapidly collapse into rule by the least equipped to rule.  He then goes onto detail that there may be a hidden power secretly controlling the government - “Manipulation can achieve its own ends”. In the eighth book of the Republic, Plato discusses political regimes in descending order of merit; Airtricity “rule by best” being at the top and tyranny “rule by a single individual” being the worst. 

He further goes onto speak about the disagreements Aristotle had with his teacher Plato. He believed there was a stage between the oligarchy and democracy called polity. This is an identifiable political entity; a group of people with a collective identity who are organised by social relations and have the capacity to mobilise resources. 

The chapter chats about the three intermediary forms between aristocracy and tyranny. The fist being aristocracy - “rule by the best”. They were the most knowledgable virtuous and wise who chose to rule for the better of the state. The second being epistocracy. This is known by those commonly most knowledgeable, experienced and educated. They were known as “philosopher kings” as they were known to be so knowledgeable.