Of The Three Sorts of Government, Monarchy, Democracy, and Oligarchy
1. As I was considering with myself to bring forth and propose to the judgement of this worthy company the discourse I held yesterday in your presence, methought I heard political virtue-- not in the illusion of a dream, but in a true and real vision-- say thus to me:
A golden ground is laid for sacred songs.
We have already laid the foundation of the discourse by persuading
and exhorting the persons to concern themselves in managing the affairs of the commonweal,
and now we proceed to build upon it the doctrine which is due after such an exhortation.
For after a man has received an admonition and exhortation to deal in the affairs of the
state, there ought consequently to be given him the precepts of government, following and
observing which, he may, as much as it is possible for a man to do, profit the public, and
in the mean time honestly prosecute his own affairs with such safety and honor as shall be
meet for him.
There is first then one point to be discoursed, which, as it is
precedent to what we have hereafter to say, so depends on what we have said before. Now
this is, what sort of policy and government is best? For as there are many sorts of lives
in particular men, so also are there in people and states; and the life of a people or
state is its policy and government. It is therefore necessary to declare which is the
best, that a statesman may choose it from among the rest, or, if it is not possible for
him to do, he may at least take that which has the nearest resemblance to the best.
2. Now there is one signification of this word policy (politeia) which imports as much as burgess-ship, that is, a
participation in the rights and privileges belonging to a town, city or borough; as when
we say that the Megarians, by an edict of their city, presented Alexander the Great with
their policy, that is, their burgess-ship, and that, Alexander laughing at
the offer they made him of it, they answered him, that they had never decreed that honor
to any but Hercules and now to himself. This he wondering to hear accepted their present,
thinking it honorable inasmuch as it was rare. The life also of a political person, who is
concerned in the government of the commonweal, is called policy, as when we praise the
policy of Pericles or Bias, that is, the manner of their government, and on the contrary,
blame that og Hyperbolus and Cleon. Some moreover there are, who call a great and
memorable action performed in the administration of a commonweal a policy, such as is the
distribution of money, the suppressing of a war, the introduction of some notable decree
worthy to be kept in perpetual memory. In which signification it is a common manner of
speaking to say, This man to-day has done a policy, if he has peradventure effected some
remarkable matter in the government of the state.
3. Besides all these significations there is yet another, that is, the
order and state by which a commonweal is governed, and by which affairs are managed and
administered. According to which we say that there are three sorts of policy or public
government, -- to wit, Monarchy, which is regality or kingship, Oligarchy, which is the
government by peers and nobles, and Democracy, which is a popular or (as we term it) a
free state. Now all these are mentioned by Herodotus in his Third Book (III 82), where he
compares them one with another. And these seem to be the most general of all; for all
other sorts, as it were, the depravation and corruption of these, either by defect or
excess; as it is in the first consonances of music, when the strings are either too
straight or too slack.
Now these three sorts of government have been distributed amongst the
nations that have had the mightiest and the greatest empire. Thus the Persians enjoyed
regality or kingship, because their king had full absolute power in all things, without
being liable to render an account to any one. The Spartans had a council consisting of a
small number, and those the best and most considerable persons in the city, who dispatched
all affairs. The Athenians maintained popular government free and exempt from any other
mixture. In which administration when there are any faults, their transgressions and
exorbitances are styled tyrannies, oppressions of thee stronger, unbridled licentiousness
of the multitude. That is, when the prince who has the royalty permits himself to outrage
whomever he pleases, and will not suffer any remonstrance to be made him concerning it, he
becomes a tyrant; when a few lords or senators in whose hand a government arrive at that
arrogance as to contemn all others, they turn oppressors; and when a popular state breaks
forth into disobedience and levelling, it runs into anarchy and unmeasurable liberty; and
in a word, all of them together will be rashness and folly.
4. Even then as a skillful musician will make use of all sorts of
instruments, and play on every one of them, accommodating himself in such manner as its
quality can bear and as shall be fit to make it yield the sweetest sound, but yet, if he
will follow Plato's counsel, will lay aside fiddles, many-stringed virginals, psalteries,
and harps, preferring before all other the lute and bandore; in like manner, an able
statesman will dexterously manage the Laconic and Lyeurgian seignory or oligarchy, fitting
and accommodating his companions who are of equal authority with him, and by little and
little drawing and reducing them to be managed by himself. He will also carry himself
discreetly in a popular state, as if he had to deal with an instrument of many and
differently sounding strings, one while letting down and remitting some things, and again
extending others, as he shall see his opportunity and find it most convenient for the
government, to which he will vigorously apply himself, well knowing when and how he ought
to resist and contradict; but yet, if he might be permitted to make his choice amongst all
sorts of government, as from so many musical instruments, he would not, if Plato's advice
might be taken, choose any other but monarchy or regal authority, as being that which is
indeed alone able to support the most perfect and most lofty note of virtue, without
suffering him either by force or by grace and favor, to frame himself for advantage and
gain. For all other sorts of governments do in a manner as much rule a statesman as he
does them, no less carrying him than they are carried by him; forasmuch as he has no
certain power over those from whom he has his authority, but is very often constrained to
cry out in these words of the poet Aeschylus, which King Demetrius, surnamed the
Town-taker, often alleged against Fortune, after he had lost his kingdom:
Thou mad'st me first, and now undoest me quite.