When the State is dissolved, the abuse of government, whatever it is, bears the common name of “anarchy.” To distinguish, democracy degenerates into “ochlocracy,” and aristocracy into “oligarchy”; and I would add that royalty degenerates into “tyranny”; but this last word is ambiguous and needs explanation.

In vulgar usage, a tyrant is a king who governs violently and without regard for justice and law. In the exact sense, a tyrant is an individual who arrogates to himself the royal authority without having a right to it. This is how the Greeks understood the word “tyrant”: they applied it indifferently to good and bad princes whose authority was not legitimate. 29 “Tyrant” and “usurper” are thus perfectly synonymous terms.