But a city ought to be composed, as far as possible, of
equals and similars; and these are generally the middle classes.
Wherefore the city which is composed of middle-class citizens is
necessarily best constituted in respect of the elements of which we
say the fabric of the state naturally consists. And this is the
class of citizens which is most secure in a state, for they do not,
like the poor, covet their neighbors' goods; nor do others covet
theirs, as the poor covet the goods of the rich; and as they neither
plot against others, nor are themselves plotted against, they pass
through life safely. Wisely then did Phocylides pray- 'Many things are
best in the mean; I desire to be of a middle condition in my city.'
Thus it is manifest that the best political community is formed by
citizens of the middle class, and that those states are likely to be
well-administered in which the middle class is large, and stronger
if possible than both the other classes, or at any rate than either
singly; for the addition of the middle class turns the scale, and
prevents either of the extremes from being dominant. Great then is the
good fortune of a state in which the citizens have a moderate and
sufficient property; for where some possess much, and the others
nothing, there may arise an extreme democracy, or a pure oligarchy; or
a tyranny may grow out of either extreme- either out of the most
rampant democracy, or out of an oligarchy; but it is not so likely
to arise out of the middle constitutions and those akin to them.
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