CHAPTER IV
We ought not to define a democracy as some do, who say simply, that it
is a government where the supreme power is lodged in the people; for
even in oligarchies the supreme power is in the majority. Nor should
they define an oligarchy a government where the supreme power is in
the hands of a few: for let us suppose the number of a people to be
thirteen hundred, and that of these one thousand were rich, who would
not permit the three hundred poor to have any share in the government,
although they were free, and their equal in everything else; no one
would say, that this government was a democracy. In like manner, if
the poor, when few in number, should acquire the power over the rich,
though more than themselves, no one would say, that this was an
oligarchy; nor this, when the rest who are rich have no share in the
administration. We should rather say, that a democracy is when the
supreme power is in the [1290b] hands of the freemen; an oligarchy,
when it is in the hands of the rich: it happens indeed that in the one
case the many will possess it, in the other the few; because there are
many poor and few rich. And if the power of the state was to be
distributed according to the size of the citizens, as they say it is
in Ethiopia, or according to their beauty, it would be an oligarchy:
for the number of those who are large and beautiful is small.
Nor are those things which we have already mentioned alone sufficient
to describe these states; for since there are many species both of a
democracy and an oligarchy, the matter requires further consideration;
as we cannot admit, that if a few persons who are free possess the
supreme power over the many who are not free, that this government is
a democracy: as in Apollonia, in Ionia, and in Thera: for in each of
these cities the honours of the state belong to some few particular
families, who first founded the colonies.
Pages:
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161