The form of the state is therefore either autocratic, or
aristocratic, or democratic. The expression monarchic is not so
suitable as autocratic for the conception here intended; for a monarch
is one who has the highest power, an autocrat is one who has all
power, so that this latter is the sovereign, whereas the former merely
represents the sovereignty.
It is evident that an autocracy is the simplest form of government
in the state, being constituted by the relation of one, as king, to
the people, so that there is one only who is the lawgiver. An
aristocracy, as a form of government, is, however, compounded of the
union of two relations: that of the nobles in relation to one
another as the lawgivers, thereby constituting the sovereignty, and
that of this sovereign power to the people. A democracy, again, is the
most complex of all the forms of the state, for it has to begin by
uniting the will of all so as to form a people; and then it has to
appoint a sovereign over this common union, which sovereign is no
other than the united will itself. The consideration of the ways in
which these forms are adulterated by the intrusion of violent and
illegitimate usurpers of power, as in oligarchy and ochlocracy, as
well as the discussion of the so called mixed constitutions, may be
passed over here as not essential, and as leading into too much
detail.
Pages:
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198