A fourth method is for every person to deliberate
upon every subject in public assembly, where the magistrates can
determine nothing of themselves, and have only the privilege of giving
their opinions first; and this is the method of the most pure
democracy, which is analogous to the proceedings in a dynastic
oligarchy and a tyrannic monarchy.
These, then, are the methods in which public business is conducted in
a democracy. When the power is in the hands of part of the community
only, it is an oligarchy and this also admits of different customs;
for whenever the officers of the state are chosen out of those who
have a moderate fortune, and these from that circumstance are many,
and when they depart not from that line which the law has laid down,
but carefully follow it, and when all within the census are eligible,
certainly it is then an oligarchy, but founded on true principles of
government [1298b] from its moderation. When the people in general do
not partake of the deliberative power, but certain persons chosen for
that purpose, who govern according to law; this also, like the first,
is an oligarchy. When those who have the deliberative power elect each
other, and the son succeeds to the father, and when they can supersede
the laws, such a government is of necessity a strict oligarchy. When
some persons determine on one thing, and others on another, as war and
peace, and when all inquire into the conduct of their magistrates, and
other things are left to different officers, elected either by vote or
lot, then the government is an aristocracy or a free state.
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