Changes also take place from the
ancient to the latest form of democracy; for where there is a
popular election of the magistrates and no property qualification, the
aspirants for office get hold of the people, and contrive at last even
to set them above the laws. A more or less complete cure for this
state of things is for the separate tribes, and not the whole
people, to elect the magistrates.
These are the principal causes of revolutions in democracies.
VI
There are two patent causes of revolutions in oligarchies: (1)
First, when the oligarchs oppress the people, for then anybody is good
enough to be their champion, especially if he be himself a member of
the oligarchy, as Lygdamis at Naxos, who afterwards came to be tyrant.
But revolutions which commence outside the governing class may be
further subdivided. Sometimes, when the government is very
exclusive, the revolution is brought about by persons of the wealthy
class who are excluded, as happened at Massalia and Istros and
Heraclea, and other cities. Those who had no share in the government
created a disturbance, until first the elder brothers, and then the
younger, were admitted; for in some places father and son, in others
elder and younger brothers, do not hold office together. At Massalia
the oligarchy became more like a constitutional government, but at
Istros ended in a democracy, and at Heraclea was enlarged to 600.
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