XII
We have now to consider what and what kind of government is suitable
to what and what kind of men. I may begin by assuming, as a general
principle common to all governments, that the portion of the state
which desires the permanence of the constitution ought to be
stronger than that which desires the reverse. Now every city is
composed of quality and quantity. By quality I mean freedom, wealth,
education, good birth, and by quantity, superiority of numbers.
Quality may exist in one of the classes which make up the state, and
quantity in the other. For example, the meanly-born may be more in
number than the well-born, or the poor than the rich, yet they may not
so much exceed in quantity as they fall short in quality; and
therefore there must be a comparison of quantity and quality. Where
the number of the poor is more than proportioned to the wealth of
the rich, there will naturally be a democracy, varying in form with
the sort of people who compose it in each case. If, for example, the
husbandmen exceed in number, the first form of democracy will then
arise; if the artisans and laboring class, the last; and so with the
intermediate forms. But where the rich and the notables exceed in
quality more than they fall short in quantity, there oligarchy arises,
similarly assuming various forms according to the kind of
superiority possessed by the oligarchs.
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