Book Description:
Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: BOOK V The design which we proposed to ourselves is now nearly V. 1 completed1. Next in order follow the causes of revolution in states, how many, and of what nature they are ; what elements work ruin in particular states, and out of what, and into what they mostly change ; also what are the elements of preservation in states generally, or in a particular state, and by what means each state may be best preserved: these questions remain to be considered. In the first place we must assume as our starting point 2 that in the many forms of government which have sprung up there has always been an acknowledgement of justice and2 proportionate equality, although mankind fail in attaining them, as indeed I have already explained3. Democracy, 3 for example, arises out of the notion that those who are equal in any respect are equal in all respects; because men are equally free, they claim to be absolutely equal. Oligarchy is based on the notion that those who are unequal in one respect are in all respects unequal; being unequal, that is, in property, they suppose themselves to be unequal absolutely. The democrats think that as they are equal they ought to be 4 1 Cp. iv. c. 2. 1 Reading a1 with the MSS. and Bekker's 1st ed. Cp. iii. 9. 1 4. 188 Revolutions: their Causes V. 1 equal in all things; while the oligarchs, under the idea that they are unequal, claim too much, which is one form of 5 inequality. All these forms of government have a kind of justice, but, tried by an absolute standard, they are faulty; and, therefore, both parties, whenever their share in the v/ government does not accord with their preconceived ideas, 6 stir up revolution. Those who excel in virtue have the best 1301 b right of all to rebel (for they alone can with reason be deemed ...
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