There is an advantage in
knowing them all, whether a man wishes to establish some new form of
democracy, or only to remodel an existing one. Founders of states
try to bring together all the elements which accord with the ideas
of the several constitutions; but this is a mistake of theirs, as I
have already remarked when speaking of the destruction and
preservation of states. We will now set forth the principles,
characteristics, and aims of such states.
II
The basis of a democratic state is liberty; which, according to
the common opinion of men, can only be enjoyed in such a state; this
they affirm to be the great end of every democracy. One principle of
liberty is for all to rule and be ruled in turn, and indeed democratic
justice is the application of numerical not proportionate equality;
whence it follows that the majority must be supreme, and that whatever
the majority approve must be the end and the just. Every citizen, it
is said, must have equality, and therefore in a democracy the poor
have more power than the rich, because there are more of them, and the
will of the majority is supreme. This, then, is one note of liberty
which all democrats affirm to be the principle of their state. Another
is that a man should live as he likes. This, they say, is the
privilege of a freeman, since, on the other hand, not to live as a man
likes is the mark of a slave.
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