[1291b]
[1]
it is necessary for there also to be some men
possessing virtue in the form of political excellence. Now as to the other capacities many people think
that it is possible for them to be possessed in combination, for example, for
the same men to be the soldiers that defend the state in war and the farmers
that till the land and the artisans, and also the councillors and judges, and
indeed all men claim to possess virtue and think themselves capable of filling
most of the offices of state; but it is not possible for the same men to be poor
and rich. Hence these seem to be in the fullest sense the parts of the state,
the rich and the poor. And also the fact that the rich are usually few and the
poor many makes these two among the parts of the state appear as opposite
sections; so that the superior claims1 of these classes are even made the guiding principles
upon which constitutions are constructed, and it is thought that there are two
forms of constitution, democracy and oligarchy.That there are then several
forms of constitution, and what are the reasons for this, has been stated
before; let us now say that there are several varieties both of democracy and of
oligarchy. And this is clear even from what has been said already. For there are
several classes both of the people and of those called the notables; for
instance classes of the people are, one the farmers, another the class dealing
with the arts and crafts, another the commercial class
[20]
occupied in buying and selling and another the one
occupied with the sea—and this is divided into the classes concerned
with naval warfare, with trade, with ferrying passengers and with fishing
(for each of these classes is extremely numerous in various places, for
instance fishermen at Tarentum and
Byzantium, navy men at
Athens, the mercantile class at
Aegina and Chios, and the ferryman-class at Tenedos), and in addition to
these the hand-working class and the people possessing little substance so that
they cannot live a life of leisure, also those that are not free men of citizen
parentage on both sides, and any other similar class of common people; while
among the notables wealth, birth, virtue, education, and the distinctions that
are spoken of in the same group as these, form the classes.The first kind of
democracy therefore is the one which receives the name chiefly in respect of
equality. For the law of this sort of democracy ascribes equality to the state
of things in which the poor have no more prominence than the rich, and neither
class is sovereign, but both are alike; for assuming that freedom is chiefly
found in a democracy, as some persons suppose, and also equality, this would be
so most fully when to the fullest extent all alike share equally in the
government. And since the people are in the majority, and a resolution passed by
a majority is paramount, this must necessarily be a democracy. This therefore is one kind of democracy,
where the offices are held on property qualifications, but these low ones,
although it is essential that the man who acquires the specified amount should
have the right to hold office, and the man who loses it should not hold office.
1 Cf. 3.11, 12 fin.
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