But the process may be reversed, and
aristocracy may change into democracy. This happens when the poor,
under the idea that they are being wronged, force the constitution
to take an opposite form. In like manner constitutional governments
change into oligarchies. The only stable principle of government is
equality according to proportion, and for every man to enjoy his own.
What I have just mentioned actually happened at Thurii, where the
qualification for office, at first high, was therefore reduced, and
the magistrates increased in number. The notables had previously
acquired the whole of the land contrary to law; for the government
tended to oligarchy, and they were able to encroach.... But the
people, who had been trained by war, soon got the better of the guards
kept by the oligarchs, until those who had too much gave up their
land.
Again, since all aristocratical governments incline to oligarchy,
the notables are apt to be grasping; thus at Lacedaemon, where
property tends to pass into few hands, the notables can do too much as
they like, and are allowed to marry whom they please. The city of
Locri was ruined by a marriage connection with Dionysius, but such a
thing could never have happened in a democracy, or in a wellbalanced
aristocracy.
I have already remarked that in all states revolutions are
occasioned by trifles.
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