[1274b]
[32]
For the student of government, and of nature and characteristics of the
various forms of constitution, almost the first question to consider is in
regard to the state: what exactly is the essential nature of a state? As it is,
this is a matter of dispute: a public act is spoken of by some people as the
action of the state, others speak of it as the action not of the state but of
the oligarchy or the tyrant in power1; and we see
that the activity of the statesman and lawgiver is entirely concerned with a
state as its object, and a constitution is a form of organization of the
inhabitants of a state. But a state
is a composite thing, in the same sense as any other of the things that are
wholes but consist of many parts; it is therefore clear that we must first
inquire into the nature of a citizen; for a state is a collection of citizens,
1 So we speak of an action planned and carried by the party in power as an Act of Parliament, and technically as an act of the sovereign.
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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