There is another reason- the poor and the rich quarrel
with one another, and whichever side gets the better, instead of
establishing a just or popular government, regards political supremacy
as the prize of victory, and the one party sets up a democracy and the
other an oligarchy. Further, both the parties which had the
supremacy in Hellas looked only to the interest of their own form of
government, and established in states, the one, democracies, and the
other, oligarchies; they thought of their own advantage, of the public
not at all. For these reasons the middle form of government has
rarely, if ever, existed, and among a very few only. One man alone
of all who ever ruled in Hellas was induced to give this middle
constitution to states. But it has now become a habit among the
citizens of states, not even to care about equality; all men are
seeking for dominion, or, if conquered, are willing to submit.
What then is the best form of government, and what makes it the
best, is evident; and of other constitutions, since we say that
there are many kinds of democracy and many of oligarchy, it is not
difficult to see which has the first and which the second or any other
place in the order of excellence, now that we have determined which is
the best. For that which is nearest to the best must of necessity be
better, and that which is furthest from it worse, if we are judging
absolutely and not relatively to given conditions: I say 'relatively
to given conditions,' since a particular government may be preferable,
but another form may be better for some people.
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