politics

Chapter 39 Volume (Δ) Four (7)
35 Incidentally, the legislator should always take care that whatever form of government is created, the middle class should be included.If he established an oligarchy, the interests of the middle class should be included in his legal system; if he established a civilian government, the middle class family should also be taken into account in his democratic legal system. (40) If the middle class outnumbers the other two, or only one of the two, then a durable republic is possible. 1297 Here, it will not happen that the rich unite with the poor to oppose the middle class, 5α because the rich and the poor are incompatible, and no one is willing to be the subject of the other; if they want to create a class outside the "republican government" A political system that can better accommodate the interests of both the rich and the poor must be futile.At the same time, the two sides will not be willing to make arrangements for taking turns, because they cannot trust each other.The prerequisite for gaining the maximum trust of both parties is a neutral arbitration, 10 and the person in the middle is such an arbitrator.The more well mixed and balanced the elements of a republic are, the longer it will last.However, those who are interested in establishing an aristocratic government often make mistakes in this regard, because they ignore the importance of balance, not only giving too much real power to the propertied class, but also deceiving the common people with false benefits. [-] So a moment of hypocrisy leads to future disasters.The wealthy use such tricks to realize their intentions to invade the common people, and that kind of disaster affects the government of the country far more than the quarrels among the common people.

Chapter Thirteen

There are five ways in which the oligarchs deceive the populace with false interests in government.These five methods are applied respectively to the assembly of citizens15, administrative functions, courts of law, arming, and physical training.Let’s discuss them one by one below: (1) For citizens’ assemblies, all citizens are allowed to attend; but only fines for absenteeism are imposed on wealthy households, or the fines for absenteeism for wealthy households are particularly severe. (2) With regard to administrative functions, no one who has property qualifications is allowed to take an oath. Here, assuming that no salary is paid to the administrators in the "republican government" or mixed aristocratic government, the oath should say: "My family is not rich enough. or too weak to hold public office".Declined appointments, but poor people can refuse to take office.

20(3) As regards jury duty in the courts, rich people must be punished according to the usual rules if they are absent; poor people will not be punished if they are absent;There is such a provision in the Jialong Dasi law.Some city-states have other regulations for attending citizens' assemblies and courts, that is, anyone who wants to attend must first register, and those who have been registered but absent will be punished particularly severely.The purpose of this regulation is to make people prudently register by heavy penalties, so that they will not dare to register lightly, so that they cannot attend citizens' assemblies and courts. (25) Similar measures are taken with regard to armaments and physical training.Poor people are allowed not to have any weapons,4 but rich people must have weapons and equipment at home, otherwise they will be punished.The poor are not punished for not participating in physical exercise, but the rich are punished for not participating in physical exercise; so the rich all accept physical (military) training out of fear, and the poor cannot accept this because there are no compulsory measures. train.

35 Above is the method employed by oligarchic legislators in oligarchies; and the corresponding and diametrically opposite measures are employed in plebeian regimes.The same is to attend the citizens' assemblies and courts. The poor can receive public subsidies once they attend, and the rich will not be punished if they are absent. Examples of subsidies without fines were practiced in some periods of civilian government in Athens. .If a fair mixture of the poor and the rich is to be achieved, both measures should be applied: stipends for attendance by the poor, and fines for absentees from the rich. 40 In this way, both sides will participate in political rallies; conversely, a polity can only belong to one side exclusively.Only those who are heavily armed, that is, those who must have property qualifications, can become a group of citizens in the "Republic" 1297b (or mixed city-state).But with regard to this qualification, it is impossible to establish a uniform amount of property applicable to all city-states.

We must determine a maximum amount on the basis of examining the actual situation of each state. This amount should be appropriate, neither too much nor too little. Everyone can qualify to obtain political rights. Because of the limitation of this qualification, only a small number of people are excluded from civil groups. 5 For the poor, if they do not impose tyranny on them or deprive them of their livelihood (property), the "poor" (ο πνηε) or "poor class" can have a small amount of property. According to Volume 1252 12b1320, the rural poor can have a Cattle as his property.It is not clear what resources the urban poor have. 32b1279, 9b1271, and 30a10 refer to "extremely poor people" (extremely poor) referring to people who have no assets at all. , even if the poor cannot enjoy political rights, they will keep their own place and will not make things difficult for the rulers.However, the rulers may not always be gentle and able to restrain themselves when encountering problems. Generally speaking, those who are in power will not often implement benevolent policies for the lower classes.Therefore, the poor sometimes become a nuisance to the city-state, for example, during a war in the city-state, if the poor cannot live and the city cannot help them, [-] they will not serve the country.But if the city-state provides them with help, they are also willing to fight.

For some regimes, the composition of its citizen groups includes not only active soldiers, but also veterans who have served in the past. The evolution of regimes based on the development of military organizations can be said to involve other fields for the original topic of this chapter. But for political history, this section is quite important. .For example, in the political system of the Mali city-state in the southern part of Thessaly, these two types of citizens are included in the roster of citizens; but among them, only active fighters-citizens can be elected as administrators. 15 In ancient Greece, in the early forms of government that arose after the monarchy, warriors made up the entirety of the civic body.At the beginning, these warriors were knights cf. 1289b36, jul 1321 8a[-]. .

The cavalry was the center of gravity of military strength and battle formation, because on the battlefield, victory could not be achieved by unorganized and inexperienced infantry; (Stahr) 1860 German translation as "Tactical Laws".Tactics are called "arrays" in ancient China.In ancient times, cavalry was the main force for fighting. 20 As the city-state gradually expanded, the strength of the infantry (soldiers) also gradually increased, so many infantry soldiers were added to the civic groups.Due to the expansion of the name list and the increase of citizens, such a regime was called a civilian regime at that time, and it is now called a "republican regime". 25 In the same way, in ancient times it was an oligarchy, and in ancient times it was a monarchy.Because in an era when the number of people was not large, there would not be many middle-class households in the country; if there were fewer middle-class households, and their lives were loose and unorganized, then the strong could easily subdue them and become their subordinates. Lord, and rule over them.

Here we have dealt with three of the five pre-determined themes: first, we have explained the reasons for the divergence of forms of government into many varieties,30 reasons for the existence of other varieties besides the ones usually enumerated, such as the There is more than one, and there are many varieties of other regimes, and it also explains the differences between each variety and why each variety is produced.Second, we show what form of government is the best for most city-states.Third, for other regimes, we have explained what kind of citizen groups are suitable for regimesFrom Chapter 1289 to the present, the text is generally written according to the predetermined procedure, with only a few side references (such as 12b25-1297 in this chapter) and interludes (for example, the second topic was originally described in Chapter 13, and Chapters 28 and [-] study Part [-]). The first topic, Chapter [-], when studying the third topic, will repeatedly involve the second topic). .

Chapter Fourteen

35 We now proceed in turn to the next question, namely, the proper method of establishing a government.Here we describe the general rule, and discuss the various forms of government.All constitutions have three elements, as the basis of their composition, and the good legislator must, in creating a constitution, consider how each element fits into the constitution of which it constitutes.If these three elements are well organized,40 the whole constitution will also be a sound institution.If the organization of the elements is different, the polity of which they are composed is also different.

These three elements are the following three: the first is the deliberative function of the general public affairs of the city-state; the second is the administrative function of the city-state in 1298α, that is, what functions are the administrative functions, what are they in charge of, and how are they selected? , these issues must be discussed; the third is the judicial (judicial) function. On the surface, the "three elements (parts)" here seem to be the same as the three functions of legislation, administration, and justice in modern times.In fact, what Aristotle said is based on the political and legal systems of the Greek city-states: its "deliberative function" is different from the modern "legislative power".Citizens' assemblies and councils, although they also have legislative power, often discuss matters related to administrative and judicial trials.Volume 1317, 32b1275, refers to the council ("Buli") as an administrative agency. Although their "governing functions" have administrative functions, they are not like the current government composed of people in charge of "administrative power" who issue orders; The council is actually above the administrative functions. Notes such as 26a[-] once explained that the popular courts of the Greek city-states, which were decided by citizen jurors, were different from the modern courts where permanent judges ruled and adjudicated cases. The "judicial function" of this court was also different from the "judicial power" in modern countries.Readers must understand the political regimes in this book in terms of ancient Greek laws and regulations and political and legal conditions. .

The deliberative body has supreme power and can make final decisions on matters of peace and war and of alliances and dissolutions, making laws, judicial content in cases of capital punishment, banishment, and confiscation, the selection and tenure of executive officers5 For a concluding review of their achievements see Vol. III, Ch. 1282, 23a33-10. .There are three different arrangements for this function: first, all citizens consider all matters (cases) and make decisions; second, all matters are handed over to certain citizens, which can attribute the power of deliberation of all cases to a government agency, Either it is a joint organization of several government agencies, or the deliberation power of individual cases is assigned to different government agencies; third, all citizens deliberate on certain matters, while some citizens deliberate on other matters. [-]
(End of this chapter)