Politics

Now, how many and what differences there are in the deliberative and sovereign part of the constitution, the arrangement concerning offices, and the courts, and what kind of constitution is coordinated with what kind, and furthermore, concerning the destruction and preservation of constitutions, from what things they come about and through what causes, has been stated before. But since it happens that there are multiple forms of democracy and likewise of the other constitutions, it is not worse at the same time to inspect if there is anything left concerning them, and to render the appropriate and advantageous way to each. And furthermore, the combinations of all these spoken ways must also be inspected, ​for these being conjoined make the constitutions overlap, so that there are oligarchical aristocracies and more democratic polities. And I mean the conjunctions which must be inspected but have not been examined now, such as if the deliberative part and the part concerning elections of offices are organized in an oligarchical way, while the part concerning the courts is aristocratic, or these and the deliberative part are oligarchical, but the part concerning elections of offices is aristocratic, or if in some other way not all the peculiar elements of the constitution are combined in the same way. Now, what kind of democracy fits what kind of city, and likewise what kind of oligarchies fits what kind of multitude, and which of the remaining constitutions is advantageous to whom, has been stated before. Nevertheless, since it must become clear not only what kind of these constitutions is best for cities, but also how one must construct both these and the others, let us go through them briefly. And first let us speak about democracy; for at the same time it will also make clear about the opposite constitution, and this is what some call oligarchy. And one must take for this method all the democratic elements and those that seem to follow democracies; for from these being combined it happens that the forms of democracy come into being, and that democracies are more than one and different. For there are two causes because of which democracies are multiple: first, the one stated before, that the multitudes (demos) are different (for there is the agricultural multitude, the artisan, and the laboring; and when the second is added to the first, and again the third to both, it differs not only in that the democracy becomes better or worse, but also in that it is not the same), and second, the one about which we are speaking now. For those things that follow democracies and seem to be peculiar to this constitution make, when combined, different democracies; for to one fewer of these will follow, to another more, and to another all of them. And it is useful to recognize each of them both for constructing whichever of them one happens to want, and for corrections. For those who establish constitutions seek to collect all the peculiar elements for their hypothesis, but they err in doing this, just as has been stated before in the discussions concerning the destructions and preservations of constitutions. But now let us state their principles, characters, and what they aim at. Now, the hypothesis of the democratic constitution is freedom (for they are accustomed to say this, on the ground that in this constitution alone they share in freedom;