Further, we note that oligarchies as well as aristocracies may last,
not from any inherent stability in such forms of government, but
because the rulers are on good terms both with the unenfranchised
and with the governing classes, not maltreating any who are excluded
from the government, but introducing into it the leading spirits among
them. They should never wrong the ambitious in a matter of honor, or
the common people in a matter of money; and they should treat one
another and their fellow citizen in a spirit of equality. The equality
which the friends of democracy seek to establish for the multitude
is not only just but likewise expedient among equals. Hence, if the
governing class are numerous, many democratic institutions are useful;
for example, the restriction of the tenure of offices to six months,
that all those who are of equal rank may share in them. Indeed, equals
or peers when they are numerous become a kind of democracy, and
therefore demagogues are very likely to arise among them, as I have
already remarked. The short tenure of office prevents oligarchies
and aristocracies from falling into the hands of families; it is not
easy for a person to do any great harm when his tenure of office is
short, whereas long possession begets tyranny in oligarchies and
democracies. For the aspirants to tyranny are either the principal men
of the state, who in democracies are demagogues and in oligarchies
members of ruling houses, or those who hold great offices, and have
a long tenure of them.
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