ABSTRACT
A number of years ago the distinguished professor of Roman law, Dr. Alvaro D'Ors, noted a decline in interest within philosophical and political theory concerning specula tion on the forms of government. D'Ors proceeded to indi cate that, in his opinion, this indifference was due to the excessively mathematical and even geometric fashion ac cording to which traditional classical theory on the topic had developed: that is, forms of government were divided accord ing to how many men governed-monarchy: one; aristoc racy: a few; democracy: the many.1 Granting that the one-few-many theory was fleshed out in Plato and Aristode by a qualitative principle of distinction according to which the many of democracy stood for liberty and the few of aristoc racy represented virtue, the mathematicizing of political dis tinctions then seemed to D'Ors to lack sufficient interest for a world in which political realities are not fashioned by them, even though they continue to function residually within poli tics. Expanding on the professors observations, we might note that whether the Soviet Union is governed by one man, Stalin, or whether it be governed by a clique makes little difference to the structure of the society itself. Internal batties and maneuvering for positions of power are personal wars fought at court, but they do not substantially change the political structure of the society in question. Greece could remain a monarchy in name for several years before convert ing itself into a republic but that conversion has not changed the nature of political life in that nation. The issue is compli-
cated further by the preservation, well into the late twentieth century, of the classical liberal distinction between a head of state and a head of government. The symbolic head of state can be an hereditary king as in the Scandinavias, or he can be elected or chosen president as in Ireland, Germany, and Italy. In no case does he govern: he merely reigns. Power lies in a parliament itself dependent on a rigid party system and the head of government comes out of that system and is dependent on it.
