But there are some states differing from
oligarchies and also differing from the so-called polity or
constitutional government; these are termed aristocracies, and in them
the magistrates are certainly chosen, both according to their wealth
and according to their merit. Such a form of government differs from
each of the two just now mentioned, and is termed an aristocracy.
For indeed in states which do not make virtue the aim of the
community, men of merit and reputation for virtue may be found. And so
where a government has regard to wealth, virtue, and numbers, as at
Carthage, that is aristocracy; and also where it has regard only to
two out of the three, as at Lacedaemon, to virtue and numbers, and the
two principles of democracy and virtue temper each other. There are
these two forms of aristocracy in addition to the first and perfect
state, and there is a third form, viz., the constitutions which
incline more than the so-called polity towards oligarchy.
VIII
I have yet to speak of the so-called polity and of tyranny. I put
them in this order, not because a polity or constitutional
government is to be regarded as a perversion any more than the above
mentioned aristocracies. The truth is, that they an fall short of
the most perfect form of government, and so they are reckoned among
perversions, and the really perverted forms are perversions of
these, as I said in the original discussion.
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