politics

Chapter 38 Volume (Δ) Four (6)
1259b In all city-states, all citizens can be divided into three parts or three classes: the very rich, the very poor, and the middle class in between. Chapters 5 to 10 discuss the republic from the aspect of political structure, But this chapter discusses the republic from the aspect of social composition.This is similar to Chapter [-] and Chapter [-] discussing oligarchs and civilian regimes from the political structure, while Chapter [-] discusses social composition. The writing procedure is similar. .Now, since moderation and temperance have been recognized as the best virtues, then the middle state of not exceeding and not exceeding is the best state of goodness endowed in human life. [-] This is because in this state people are most able to obey reason.No matter which end it tends to, that is, when it reaches the state of being too ugly, too weak, too cheap, too poor or too beautiful, too strong, too expensive, or too rich, most people are unwilling to follow the guidance of reason.Those of the first kind are often lazy and rascals, and are prone to petty crimes, while the second are often presumptuous and presumptuous, and prone to serious crimes. You know, [-] Rascals and presumptuousness are the origin of most evils.

In addition, little ambition is also a virtue of middle-class people. If a person has ambition, and it is expressed in culture and military. And "Su Xiao", think that this phrase is a marginal note for future generations, add <>. , It will cause great harm to the city-state.If people have too much material or virtuous karma, such as wealth, physical strength, companionship, and the like, they will neither be willing nor able to be ruled by others.15 This defect can already be seen in their home life in their infancy.Those who grew up in an environment of luxury see volume 1310 22a20.People who don't know what discipline is, those who grow up in the classroom and on the playground will not develop the character of conformity, while on the other hand, people who lack material and good karma in life will give up on themselves because they are too humble .Therefore, all the people who live on this side only know how to obey but cannot take the responsibility of governing. They are like a group of slaves; Authoritative rule, they are like a gang of masters.In this way, it is a city-state composed of masters and slaves, not a city-state of free people.

In this city-state, one party shows contempt, while the other harbors jealousy, so the friendship and friendship that a political group should have are missing here.However, friendship is one of the conditions for the establishment of society. If friendship is replaced by hatred, people will not even walk on the same road,25 let alone talk about forming social groups.A city-state exists as a society (group), and it should always be composed of the same and equal people as much as possible, so that it belongs to the same state and is more friendly to each other. It is more suitable for this composition. Plutarch said in "Seven Philosophers" xi that in the best commoner city-state, the citizens are neither particularly rich nor particularly poor. .

See lines 2-3 for the natural fit of the various elements of a city-state, in our view.In other words, the best form of government can only be formed on the basis of the middle class.No class can be more stable than the middle class30 (well-to-do family), they neither covet other people's property like the poor, nor do their assets reach the level of the rich enough to arouse the covetousness of the poor, They neither have any conspiracy against others, nor do they harm each other. It can be said that they live a peaceful life without fear.We believe in Phocylides' prayers For Phocylides' prayers see Berger, ed., Greek Lyric Poets, "Fragments of Phocylides", 12.Fujilit was a poet in the 6th century BC and a songwriter.It is indeed out of sincerity:

"Nothing less than nothing, nothing less than auspiciousness,

Living in Spang, enjoying it. "

35 Therefore, it is obvious that the best political groups must be those in power of the middle class.Whenever the middle class in a state is strong enough to stand up against the other two sections and for a while, or at least the middle class is stronger than any other single section, then the middle class occupies a decisive position in the state, Neither of the other two opposing parts (classes) can dominate the political power, and a good political system may be formed at this time.Therefore, as a city-state, its supreme happiness is that its citizens have sufficient assets and can live a moderately prosperous life. 40 If this is not the case, in the city-state, some people are rich, and some people are poor and have no place to stand. In 1296α, the results will be extreme. At this time, the government of the city-state will either become a pure oligarchy or an absolute common people. regime.Going a step further, the strongest oligarchy or the most reckless civilian politics may turn into a tyranny.Generally speaking, tyranny often comes from two extreme regimes, but middle or near-middle regimes controlled by the middle class almost never undergo such evolution.Later, when we discuss the evolution of the political system (revolution), we should explain why the golden mean will help political stability, which probably refers to chapters 5a1308-18 of Volume 24. .

Obviously, for most city-states it is best to keep the government in the middle form.This is the only way to avoid factional disputes; in any city-state with a strong middle class, there are few factional disputes among citizens, and there is no internal strife. There are generally fewer parties in the top 10 states because the middle-class citizens in the big states are more.Conversely, the people of a small state are often divided into two sections (classes), i.e. all citizens are rich, or all citizens are poor, with no or negligible middle class.As long as there are more middle classes in the civilian government and they can share a larger political power, the city-state will show an intermediate character, and it will be more stable and durable compared with the oligarchy. .

As long as there is no middle class in the commonwealth, and the number of the poor is so great that it predominates,15 civil strife will soon break out in the city-state, and the state will soon be destroyed.The following situation can also be used as an example of the superiority of the middle class: the best legislators such as Solon were born in the middle class (middle citizens).Solon's own poems show that his family is well-off. Solon was born in the middle class. This can be found in "Athens Regime" v, Plutarch: "Biography of Solon" 1, 14.In Berger's series "Solon's Fragments" 15, he himself said that "the family is not very rich". ; Lychegus was not born in the royal family. It was once said that he was descended from the royal family of Plutarch: "Biography of Lychegus" 3, "Biography of Solon" 16, said that Lychegus was from the royal family of Sparta; In Cleomenes 10, it is said that "Lyccagus was not a king". ,20 This statement is incorrect; Giarondas, as well as most other legislators, were likewise middle class (middle citizens).

From the above description, we can also infer the reason why there are less republics and more civilians and oligarchy in the world.First, in most city-states, the middle class is generally small in number; the propertied people and the common people "Demo" (δμο), the original meaning is "village" or "fangshe"; the second meaning is "civilians ( The masses)", that is, the residents of the community.The second meaning of the word used in this book is slightly different: here (1296a25) it should be "the propertyless" as opposed to "the property owners". 1197a11 etc. are "rich people who are more than assets", and 1304b1 etc. are opposite to "rich houses", which should be "poor people" who are "less than assets". 1274a12 and so on are opposite to "noble person", Juan 1305 and Juan 33 are often compared to "nobility (nobility)", and should be "common people". In 1291b18, "civilians" are also different from "heavy soldiers", which should be the fourth-level people, but usually, heavy soldiers are also residents of Fangshe. In 1278b24, the word "civilian" includes artisans and merchants, and 1290a17 said that "artisans" tend to get rich, so "demo" is not entirely "poor". "Demo" can sometimes be understood as "the masses". [-]b[-], Demer as "free and poor, and at the same time the majority of the people in the state".

They are two opposing parts, and if one of them prevails,25 it will oppress the middle class and drag the political system in the direction they themselves advocate, either establishing a civilian government or an oligarchy.Second, factional struggles occur from time to time between the common people and the wealthy class; no matter who wins in the end,30 the party that prevails always regards the political privileges it holds as the fruit of the victory of the party struggle, and when it is seized in its own hands, it will be The regime is either biased towards populism or oligarchism, and is unwilling to organize an intermediate form of regime on the basis of public interest and the principle of equality.Third, Athens and Sparta should be blamed cf. Vol. V. VII 1307b22.These two great states dominate Greece.Both city-states insisted on their own forms of government: the one often ordered the states under its leadership to organize a plebeian regime, the other established an oligarchy according to the extent of its influence.Therefore, both city-states neglect the public welfare of each subordinate state, and only care about the convenience of their own state.It is for these three reasons that a mixed form of government of an intermediate nature can never be established, or it can only be established occasionally in a few city-states.

Since ancient times, among the leaders of Greece, there has been only one person. Most of the annotations or translations speculate that this "one person" should refer to Theramenes, the moderate leader of Athens in the party struggle in 411 BC. Thousands of heavily armed soldiers (citizens-warrior) to build a mixed moderate government between civilians and oligarchs.Only well-to-do families can prepare heavy weapons, and only well-to-do families have more leisure to train heavy soldiers.Participating in the citizens' assembly is limited to heavily armed soldiers, and the foundation of the regime is in the middle class. "Thucydides" viii 97, once called this regime a confluence of oligarchy and populism.

But Salamini can only be called "the leader of Athens". The γεμονα mentioned here usually refers to the "Greek leader". Antipater, when Aristotle was teaching and writing at the Lyceum Academy in Athens, Antipater was the regent of Macedonia, the governor of the military administration of the Greek states, and may have followed Aristotle’s advice and advocated a republic (mixed ) regime.But Antipad prompted Athens to reduce the number of citizens, limit its number to 184, and establish an intermediate form of government, which was seen in 9000 BC, when Aristotle had died.Therefore, this reference to Antipad is not entirely in line with historical facts.have been advised to have the States organize such a government.Up to now, the city-states have accumulated deep habits, and 321 people no longer pay attention to establishing an equal and just system. They only exercise their ruling authority by relying on the reach of their own power. Once they fail, 40b will bow to the victorious country.

Through the above discussion, everyone should be able to understand what is the best form of government for most city-states, and why it is the best form of government.Now that the best form of government has been determined, see 1289a8-b13, 1291b15-1292b10, 1292b22-1293a10 of this volume for other various forms of government, including those we described earlier.The different breeds of commonwealth and oligarchy,5 it is not difficult to arrange them in an order according to their respective qualities, and their respective values.According to the general practice, no matter what the special situation of each state is, the breed that is closer to the best regime is naturally better. For example, Volume 1320, Chapter 21, 10b1296, it is said that the first type of oligarchy is similar to the republic. Therefore, any species that is farther from the best form, that is, the golden mean, must also be a bad form of government.Here we need to remind everyone to pay attention to "special circumstances", because although some political forms are indeed of higher real value, 32 due to internal circumstances, some city-states are not suitable for adoption. Suitable.Such examples are also very common. For example, in the next chapter 34b[-]-[-], according to the assumed individual circumstances, each state should adopt the type of oligarchy that is suitable for itself, and it is not necessary to adopt the first type of oligarchy. .

Chapter Twelve

According to the research procedure mentioned above, see Chapter 1289 18b15. , we should now consider the question of the suitability of the form of government to the city-state and the people.In order to answer this thesis, we must establish an axiom, which applies to all forms of government: 3 In a state, that part which is willing to maintain its form of government must be stronger than that which opposes it. Xenophon: History of Greece, Book II 19, 20, 42, 44, 1309, saying that this reason comes from Salamini.See volume 16 1320b25 and volume 20 [-]b[-] of this book. .Here, we should also notice that the factors that make up a city-state have quality and quantity.The so-called "quality" includes free status, wealth, culture (education) and popularity (nobility); the so-called "quantity" refers to the number of people.One part of the city-state takes precedence over quality and the other over quantity. [-] For example, the part of the door that is lower than that of the nobles is greater in number than the rich, and the number of the poor is greater than the number of the rich; Victory.There should be a balance between quality and quantity.

In this regard, we can put forward three rules: (25) If the number of poor people is large, and the advantages in quantity actually surpass the advantages in quality of other people, then naturally a civilian government should be established; Which one to choose depends on the individual circumstances of the superiority of the civilian power in the state.For example, if the populace of the state is dominated by peasants, then it should establish peasants. See Chapter VI 1292b24-30 of this volume.Civilian government, that is, the first type; if the common people of the state are mainly craftsmen and servants, then it should establish an extreme civilian government, 30 is the last type Chapter VI 1292b41-1293a6.Commonwealth; other breeds are likewise chosen according to the composition of the common people. (34) If the qualitative advantages of the wealthy households and the aristocratic class are sufficient to compensate for their quantitative disadvantages and there is a surplus, then an oligarchy will result; as to which type of oligarchy should be chosen, the same should be done according to each The state oligarchs partly depends on the degree of superiority. From Buecheler, "Su Xiao" believes that lines 38-1297 of this section and 6a1-b1294 below should be moved before 14b1297 in chapter nine, and 1b28-1294 should be moved below 40b[-] and merged into " Republic" topic. "New School" from Welton believes that these are not wrong Janes and do not need to be moved.

(End of this chapter)