There are generally thought to be two principal forms: as men say of
the winds that there are but two- north and south, and that the rest
of them are only variations of these, so of governments there are said
to be only two forms- democracy and oligarchy. For aristocracy is
considered to be a kind of oligarchy, as being the rule of a few,
and the so-called constitutional government to be really a
democracy, just as among the winds we make the west a variation of the
north, and the east of the south wind. Similarly of musical modes
there are said to be two kinds, the Dorian and the Phrygian; the other
arrangements of the scale are comprehended under one or other of these
two. About forms of government this is a very favorite notion. But
in either case the better and more exact way is to distinguish, as I
have done, the one or two which are true forms, and to regard the
others as perversions, whether of the most perfectly attempered mode
or of the best form of government: we may compare the severer and more
overpowering modes to the oligarchical forms, and the more relaxed and
gentler ones to the democratic.
IV
It must not be assumed, as some are fond of saying, that democracy
is simply that form of government in which the greater number are
sovereign, for in oligarchies, and indeed in every government, the
majority rules; nor again is oligarchy that form of government in
which a few are sovereign.
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