Lessons from antiquity, con't: When the dictator comes to power over the aristocracy through popular support (e.g., Pisistratus), it necessarily implies that the aristocracy, the few, the mesne lords, had lost their legitimacy in the eyes of the people.
The Republic, if we can keep it, is of course res/publica. Enlightenment political theorists applied the term to many forms of government, including monarchies, legislative rule, etc. before settling on a democratically elected legislature. Res is thing, here the thing of common concern. And there's where the term does its work. The inferential construction of the public goods -- the saying of what it is that we have when we have something together. Heidegger, followed by absolutely none of the dictionaries that I've found, suggested that it traces to ρημα, word. When the common construction of the shared life is empty, a person takes its place, and becomes the republic.
Noticed some interesting phrasing in an administration statement today. "Under President X, no one is above the law." Let those with ears to hear, hear.