[1298a]
[1]
second the one connected with the magistracies, that is, what
there are to be and what matters they are to control, and what is to be the
method of their election, and a third is, what is to be the judiciary.The deliberative factor is sovereign about war and peace
and the formation and dissolution of alliances, and about laws, and about
sentences of death and exile and confiscation of property, and about the audits
of magistrates. And necessarily
either all these decisions must be assigned to all the citizens, or all to some
of them (for instance to some one magistracy or to several),
or different ones to different magistracies, or some of them to all the citizens
and some to certain persons.For all the citizens
to be members of the deliberative body and to decide all these matters is a mark
of a popular government, for the common people seek for equality of this nature.
But there are several modes of
such universal membership. One is for the citizens to serve in rotation and not
all in a body (as is enacted in the constitution of the Milesian
Telecles,1 and in
other constitutions also the boards of magistrates deliberate in joint
assemblies but all the citizens enter into the magistracies from the tribes or
from the very smallest sections of the citizen-body in rotation until office has
gone through the whole body), and for there to be joint assemblies only
to consider legislation and reforms of the constitution and to hear the reports
submitted by the magistrates. Another mode is
[20]
for all to assemble
in a body, but only for the purpose of electing magistrates, enacting laws,
considering the declaration of war and the conclusion of peace and holding the
audit of magistrates, but for all other matters to be considered by the
magistrates appointed to deal with each respectively and elected by suffrage or
by lot from all the citizens. Another mode is for the citizens to meet about the
magistracies and the audits and in order to deliberate about declaring war and
concluding an alliance, but for all other matters to be dealt with by the
magistrates, elected by suffrage in as many cases as circumstances allow,2 and such
magistracies are all those which must of necessity be filled by experts.
A fourth mode is for all to
meet in council about all matters, and for the magistracies to decide about
nothing but only to make preliminary decisions; this is the mode in which
democracy in its last form is administered at the present day—the form
of democracy which we pronounce to correspond to dynastic oligarchy and to
tyrannical monarchy. These modes
then are all of them democratic. On the other hand for some persons to
deliberate upon all matters is oligarchic. But this also has several variations.
For when the members of the deliberative body are elected on comparatively
moderate property-qualifications, and the eligible persons are comparatively
numerous because of the moderateness of the qualification, and when they do not
make changes in things in which the law forbids it but follow the law, and when
anybody acquiring the property-qualification is allowed to become a member, a
constitution of this sort is indeed an oligarchy, but one of the nature of
constitutional government, because of its moderation. When on the other hand not
everybody thus qualified participates in deliberation but only certain persons
previously chosen by election,
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