Special offices are peculiar to certain forms of government:
for example that of probuli, which is not a democratic office,
although a bule or council is. There must be some body of men whose
duty is to prepare measures for the people in order that they may
not be diverted from their business; when these are few in number, the
state inclines to an oligarchy: or rather the probuli must always be
few, and are therefore an oligarchical element. But when both
institutions exist in a state, the probuli are a check on the council;
for the counselors is a democratic element, but the probuli are
oligarchical. Even the power of the council disappears when
democracy has taken that extreme form in which the people themselves
are always meeting and deliberating about everything. This is the case
when the members of the assembly receive abundant pay; for they have
nothing to do and are always holding assemblies and deciding
everything for themselves. A magistracy which controls the boys or the
women, or any similar office, is suited to an aristocracy rather
than to a democracy; for how can the magistrates prevent the wives
of the poor from going out of doors? Neither is it an oligarchical
office; for the wives of the oligarchs are too fine to be controlled.
Enough of these matters. I will now inquire into appointments to
offices.
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