[1289a]
[1]
but the proper
course is to bring forward an organization of such a sort that men will easily
be persuaded and be able in the existing circumstances to take part in it, since
to reform a constitution is no less a task than to frame one from the beginning,
just as to re-learn a science is just as hard as to learn it originally; in
addition therefore to the things mentioned the student of politics must also be
able to render aid to the constitutions that exist already, as was also said
before.1 But this is
impossible if he does not know how many kinds of constitution there are; but at
present some people think that there is only one kind of democracy and one kind
of oligarchy, but this is not true. Hence he must take in view the different varieties of the constitutions, and
know how many there are and how many are their combinations. And after this it
needs this same discrimination also to discern the laws that are the best, and
those that are suited to each of the forms of constitution. For the laws should
be laid down, and all people lay them down, to suit the
constitutions—the constitutions must not be made to suit the laws; for
a constitution is the regulation of the offices of the state in regard to the
mode of their distribution and to the question what is the sovereign power in
the state and what is the object of each community, but laws are distinct from
the principles of the constitution, and regulate how the magistrates are to
govern and to guard against those
[20]
who
transgress them. So that clearly it
is necessary to be in possession of the different varieties of each form of
constitution, and the number of these, even for the purpose of legislation; for
it is impossible for the same laws to be expedient for all oligarchies or
democracies if there are really several kinds of them, and not one sort of
democracy or oligarchy only.And inasmuch as in our first inquiry2 about the forms of the
constitution we classified the right constitutions as three, kingship,
aristocracy and constitutional government, and the deviations from these as
three, tyranny from kingship, oligarchy from aristocracy and democracy from
constitutional government, and about aristocracy and kingship we have spoken
（for to study the best constitution is the same thing as to speak about
the forms that bear those names, since each of them means a system based on the
qualification of virtue equipped with means）, and as also the question
what constitutes the difference between aristocracy and kingship and when a
royal government is to be adopted has been decided before, it remains to discuss
the form of constitution designated by the name3 common to them all, and the other forms, oligarchy,
democracy and tyranny. Now it is
manifest also which of these deviations4 is the worst and which
the second worst. For necessarily the deviation from the first and most divine
must be the worst,5 and kingship must of
necessity either possess the name only, without really being kingship,
1 Book 3.5.
2 Book 3.5.
3 i.e. πολιτεία, ‘polity,’ which denotes not only a constitution of any form, but also （like our term ‘constitutional government’） a particular form, viz., a republic, cf. Book 3.5.2.
4 The three forms of constitution last mentioned.
5 Corruptio optimi pessima, a Socratic notion: ‘the men of the best natural gifts, when educated, are the worst,’ Xen. Mem. 4.1.3.
Aristotle. Aristotle in 23 Volumes, Vol. 21, translated by H. Rackham. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1944.
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