The Good Book_ A Secular Bible - A. C. Grayling [231]
Chapter 11
1. Every state is a community of some kind, and every community is established with a view to some good;
2. For people always act in order to obtain that which they think good.
3. But, if all communities aim at some good, the state or political community,
4. Which is the highest of all, and which embraces all the rest,
5. Aims at good in a greater degree than any other, and at the highest good.
6. Some people think that the qualifications of a statesman, king, householder and master are the same,
7. And that they differ, not in kind, but only in the number of their subjects.
8. For example, the ruler over a few is called a master; over more, the manager of a household;
9. Over a still larger number, a statesman or king, as if there were no difference between a great household and a small state.
10. The distinction which is made between the king and the statesman is that when the government is personal, the ruler is a king;
11. When, according to the rules of political science, the citizens rule and are ruled in turn, then he is called a statesman.
12. But it is not true that governments differ only in degree; they differ in kind, as will be evident to anyone who considers the matter.
13. As in other departments of science, so in politics, the compound should always be resolved into the simple elements or least parts of the whole.
14. We must therefore look at the elements of which the state is composed,
15. In order that we may see how the different kinds of rule differ from one another, and whether we can understand each one clearly.
16. For it is obvious that government too is the subject of a single science, which has to consider what government is best and of what sort it must be,
17. To be most in accordance with our aspirations, if there were no external impediment,
18. And also what kind of government is adapted to particular states. For the best is often unattainable,
19. And therefore the true legislator and statesman ought to be acquainted, not only with that which is best in the abstract,
20. But also with that which is best relative to circumstances.
Chapter 12
1. We should be able further to say how a state may be constituted under any given conditions;
2. Both how it is originally formed and, when formed, how it may be longest preserved.
3. We ought, moreover, to know the form of government which is best suited to states in general;
4. And we should consider, not only what form of government is best, but also what is possible and what is easily attainable by all.
5. There are some who would have none but the most perfect; for this, many natural advantages are required.
6. Others, again, speak of a more attainable form, and, although they reject the constitution under which they are living, they extol some one in particular.
7. Any change of government which has to be introduced should be one which men, starting from their existing constitutions, will be both willing and able to adopt,
8. Since there is quite as much trouble in the reformation of an old constitution as in the establishment of a new one, just as to unlearn is as hard as to learn.
9. The same political insight will enable a man to know which laws are best, and which are suited to different constitutions;
10. For the laws are, and ought to be, relative to the constitution, and not the constitution to the laws.
11. A constitution is the organisation of offices in a state, and determines what is to be the governing body, and what is the end of each community.
12. But laws are not to be confounded with the principles of the constitution;
13. They are the rules according to which the magistrates should administer the state, and proceed against offenders.
14. Therefore we must know the varieties, and the number of varieties, of each form of government, if only with a view to making laws.
15. For the same laws cannot be equally suited to all oligarchies or to all democracies,
16. Since there is certainly more than one form both of democracy and of oligarchy.