This is the second characteristic of
democracy, whence has arisen the claim of men to be ruled by none,
if possible, or, if this is impossible, to rule and be ruled in turns;
and so it contributes to the freedom based upon equality.
Such being our foundation and such the principle from which we
start, the characteristics of democracy are as follows the election of
officers by all out of all; and that all should rule over each, and
each in his turn over all; that the appointment to all offices, or
to all but those which require experience and skill, should be made by
lot; that no property qualification should be required for offices, or
only a very low one; that a man should not hold the same office twice,
or not often, or in the case of few except military offices: that
the tenure of all offices, or of as many as possible, should be brief,
that all men should sit in judgment, or that judges selected out of
all should judge, in all matters, or in most and in the greatest and
most important- such as the scrutiny of accounts, the constitution,
and private contracts; that the assembly should be supreme over all
causes, or at any rate over the most important, and the magistrates
over none or only over a very few. Of all magistracies, a council is
the most democratic when there is not the means of paying all the
citizens, but when they are paid even this is robbed of its power; for
the people then draw all cases to themselves, as I said in the
previous discussion.
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