Politics   

individuals, or mechanics and laborers who are the servants of the
community. These reflections carried a little further will explain
their position; and indeed what has been said already is of itself,
when understood, explanation enough.
Since there are many forms of government there must be many varieties
of citizen and especially of citizens who are subjects; so that under
some governments the mechanic and the laborer will be citizens, but
not in others, as, for example, in aristocracy or the so-called
government of the best (if there be such an one), in which honors are
given according to virtue and merit; for no man can practice virtue
who is living the life of a mechanic or laborer. In oligarchies the
qualification for office is high, and therefore no laborer can ever be
a citizen; but a mechanic may, for an actual majority of them are
rich. At Thebes there was a law that no man could hold office who had
not retired from business for ten years. But in many states the law
goes to the length of admitting aliens; for in some democracies a man
is a citizen though his mother only be a citizen; and a similar
principle is applied to illegitimate children; the law is relaxed when
there is a dearth of population. But when the number of citizens
increases, first the children of a male or a female slave are
excluded; then those whose mothers only are citizens; and at last the
right of citizenship is confined to those whose fathers and mothers
are both citizens.
Hence, as is evident, there are different kinds of citizens; and he is
a citizen in the highest sense who shares in the honors of the state.
Compare Homer's words, 'like some dishonored stranger'; he who is
excluded from the honors of the state is no better than an alien. But
when his exclusion is concealed, then the object is that the
privileged class may deceive their fellow inhabitants.
As to the question whether the virtue of the good man is the same as
that of the good citizen, the considerations already adduced prove
that in some states the good man and the good citizen are the same,
and in others different. When they are the same it is not every
citizen who is a good man, but only the statesman and those who have
or may have, alone or in conjunction with others, the conduct of
public affairs.
Part VI
Having determined these questions, we have next to consider whether
there is only one form of government or many, and if many, what they
are, and how many, and what are the differences between them.
A constitution is the arrangement of magistracies in a state,
especially of the highest of all. The government is everywhere
sovereign in the state, and the constitution is in fact the
government. For example, in democracies the people are supreme, but in
oligarchies, the few; and, therefore, we say that these two forms of
government also are different: and so in other cases.
First, let us consider what is the purpose of a state, and how many
forms of government there are by which human society is regulated. We
have already said, in the first part of this treatise, when discussing
household management and the rule of a master, that man is by nature a
political animal. And therefore, men, even when they do not require
one another's help, desire to live together; not but that they are
also brought together by their common interests in proportion as they
severally attain to any measure of well-being. This is certainly the
chief end, both of individuals and of states. And also for the sake of
mere life (in which there is possibly some noble element so long as
the evils of existence do not greatly overbalance the good) mankind
meet together and maintain the political community. And we all see
that men cling to life even at the cost of enduring great misfortune,
seeming to find in life a natural sweetness and happiness.
There is no difficulty in distinguishing the various kinds of
authority; they have been often defined already in discussions outside
the school. The rule of a master, although the slave by nature and the
master by nature have in reality the same interests, is nevertheless