politics

Chapter 43 Volume (E) Five (1)
In previous writings of Plato and Aristotle the causes of internal strife and change were dealt with only in sketches, e.g. Herodotus iii80-82, Thucydides iii82, viii89, Strabo 480 A fragment of the history book of Efro is recorded on the page.In the three books of Plato's "Utopia" and "Laws" and Aristotle's "Politics", this point began to be studied in detail as a topic. The five and six volumes of "Political Science" are written by listing historical facts to prove common sense, which is very similar to the way medical scientists use individual cases as pathological examples (such as Hippocrates: "Common Diseases", Hippocrates, De Morbvulgar) .Therefore, later generations often refer to Volume [-] as "Political Pathology" and Volume [-] as "Political Medicine".

The cases of internal strife and change mentioned in Volume 2000 involve most of the city-states in the Greek world, especially in the colonial city-states along the coast of Asia Minor and the islands, which are described in detail.Most of the examples cited in the Greek peninsula are from big states, such as Athens, Megara, Corinth, Argos, Lacedaemon, Helia, Ellis, Thebes, Larissa, and Farsaro Waiting for the historical facts.Cities of Achaia, restored Messinia, Megalopolis, Acarnania, Aetolia, Corcyra, and Crete The cities are not mentioned. "Thucydides" also describes Godila's incident in detail. It is very strange that this volume does not use this historical material at all.Only Syracuse is mentioned in the cities of Sicily; the Aegean islands are only mentioned near Eurasia.The historical monuments of the cities on the Black Sea coast are not mentioned at all.Some examples in the books of historians such as Herodotus, Thucydides, and Xenophon that are in line with the general principles of political change made by Aristotle are not found in this volume, and Aristotle The examples cited by De are often not found in the books of various historians. For more than 1304 years, the classics have been lost, and now the sources of the historical facts described by Aristotle cannot be verified one by one.Some of them may have been learned by Aristotle from politicians or historians of various states (see notes to 4a1311 and 36a[-]), or some may have been learned from disciples who came to him from various states.

Volume 1289 Chapter 12 26b[-]-[-] pre-planned five topics, Volume [-] has explained four.The narration in this volume conforms to the fifth topic, "the reasons for the overthrow of regimes and their preservation methods", and focuses on the issues of "internal strife" and "reform", and only chapters [-] and [-] involve preservation methods.See the notes on the opening of volume [-].

For the ordering of Volumes 1319 and 38, please refer to Note [-]b[-] in Chapter [-] of Volume [-].

Chapter One
Having explained four of the five pre-conceived procedures of study, we need now consider only the last remaining topic,20 the general causes of why the regimes of government change, and to show the reasons for several of them and the various causes of change. Different nature of change.At the same time, we have to consider the special reasons for the decline of each political system, so as to study when a political system tends to collapse and must be replaced by another political system, what political system will replace it, and which political system is more suitable to replace it.In addition, we make various policy suggestions on how to keep the regime in general or a certain regime stable, and point out for each city-state the best way to maintain its regime. 25
Let us first assume that when creating various regimes, people are seeking to conform to justice or fairness and the word "and" (κσ). According to the revisions of Spengel, Becker, and Susmeer, here should be "that is" (εναι )Character.The principle of proportional (proportional) equality is used as the basis of our argument, just as it has been explained. Interpretation and requirements, so in fact the states cannot achieve the true principle of equality. , but this principle has not been practiced in the world so far.The commonwealth, for example, embraces the founding idea that as long as men are equal in one respect, they should be guaranteed absolute equality in every respect; absolutely equal.Oligarchies, on the other hand, are founded on the idea that if people are unequal in one respect, they should be unequal in every other respect; Absolute advantage.

According to these notions, the plebs demanded an equal share of all rights on the grounds of the equality of birth and status of all,35 while the oligarchs, on the basis of their unequal position, demanded superiority in other things as well, More rights.Both of them insist on their own justice, but in fact, what they insist on is not absolute justice.Therefore, in the same city-state, if the political rights granted cannot satisfy the ideas of these two factions, they will initiate changes respectively. The city-state caused internal strife to cause a "change" (μεαβολ) or "revolution" in the political system.

"Sedition" (σσι) means to incite riots, that is, "infighting", including political activities that invoke legal and illegal procedures; it turns out that citizens in Greek city-states can form parties in citizen assemblies to demand reform of the legal system or Regimes, in practice, partisan struggle often transcend parliamentary debate to resort to force.The resulting "change" is tantamount to a "revolution." .In fact, it is more appropriate for those who have outstanding talents and virtues and are indeed outstanding among the contemporary 40 citizens. Refer to volume 1284 28b34-1304.Rise up to advocate innovation, but these people are usually not the first to attack, but the last to appear. See Chapter 4 1301b[-]. .Under the system at that time, Menwang (Nobility) was generally considered to be the inheritance of the talents and wealth of their ancestors. Therefore, they believed that relying on the special Menwang and using it as a basis, they demanded more than equal rights. Not without reason.These are generally the sources of strife within states.

The above situation can also be used to explain why regime change (or revolution) always evolves through two different paths. (5) Sometimes there arises disturbances directed against the existing constitution, with an attempt to change the nature of the government, or to convert a plebeian government into an oligarchy, or to convert an oligarchy into a plebeian government, or to convert a plebeian and oligarchy into a republic and aristocracy, or It is in turn to transform the latter into the former. 1(10) But sometimes, the purpose of infighting is not to overthrow the existing regime.The hostile party can also adopt the following more moderate routes: (2) No matter what kind of political system it belongs to, continue to maintain this political system.For example, the previous regime might have been an oligarchy or it might have been a monarchy.The attacking party allowed it to continue, but tried to win the executive power into the hands of the party to which it belonged. ([-]) They can also in some ways induce the original regime to adopt new measures, sometimes these new measures will become severe, and sometimes they may turn into relaxation.

15 For example, if it is an oligarchy, the new measures can make it aggravate or reduce the nature of oligarchy, and if it is originally a civilian government, it can make it aggravate or reduce the nature of populism. Similarly, it can also be used for other forms of government. make varying degrees of change. (20) The attacking party may also be dissatisfied with some parts of it instead of opposing the whole regime, so it may demand the establishment of a certain administrative agency or the overthrow of a certain agency.For example, it is said that in Lacedaemon (Sparta), 1307 Lusander once strongly advocated the abolition of the monarchy, and King Pausanias "King Pausanias" see volume 2a1333 and volume VII 32b30 and notes.Lusander, the general of Sparta, advocated that the throne should be elected among all tribes based on merit and virtue, not limited to the heirs of the Heracles. "229E.The "abandoned monarchy" mentioned here actually refers to the hereditary system of abolishing the throne.It is only an attempt to abolish the Control Yuan system.Another example is recorded in Epidanoi's "Thucydides" Volume 24, 236, Epidano is famous for his many internal strife.When the parties maintaining the existing regime were relatively strong, the opposition parties could only demand partial reforms.Epidano was originally colonized by immigrants from Godila City. Godila’s big clans were the three tribes of Duli, so Epidano was also dominated by these three tribes, and its chiefs were in charge of important power (see Jila Erbert: "Greek Constitution" volume II [-]).

Epidano, port on the Ionian Gulf, in Illyria, twenty leagues from the sea and three miles from the Aios (cf. Strabo, p. 20); later renamed Dyrrhachium ), which is now Durazzo in Albania. , the political system has undergone partial changes, and the tribal council of elders has been replaced by a democratic council.But so far Epidano still does not belong to a democratic government. It stipulates that when the citizens' assembly meeting is held to elect the personnel of a certain administrative agency, only the officials in the civic group will force the predecessors to be present when they elect the successor. Citizens can attend at will, so predecessors can manipulate elections (see Volume 316, Chapter 1297, 17a25, the way oligarchism controls power).Isdar's translation should be called Epidano, and the members of the Citizens' Assembly were originally limited to public officials.It is necessary to attend the meeting, and there are no hard and fast rules for other citizens, that is to say, other citizens can attend at will. [-] Another example, so far there is only one consul, which has the characteristics of an oligarch. This is different from other states where several consuls form the consul, and the system can only be implemented after a collegial meeting.

In all internal strife, "inequality" is often the cause of attack, although it may not actually be "inequality", because the corresponding unequal treatment according to the proportion is normal among people who are not equal.The reason why hereditary monarchies are often regarded as unequals is simply because the heirs do not have the excellence of virtue by which he occupies the throne among equals, and is therefore unequal. 30 Internal strife always grows from the desire for "equality".The so-called equality is divided into two categories. See Plato: "Laws" 787B; and Isocrates: "Senate Debate" Section 21. , one category refers to equal quantity, and the other category refers to equal ratio.

The so-called "equal quantity" means that the same things you get are equal to what others get in terms of quantity and capacity; the so-called "equal ratio" means that the real value of each person is distributed in proportion something commensurate with it.For example, 3 is one more than 2, and 1 is one more than 2, and their extra values ​​are equal; but 1 is twice as much as 4, and 2 is also twice as much as 2, and their proportions are equal, and both are 1:2 relationship, that is to say, they are more than twice as much as the other. 1 The examples here are limited to mathematical ratios. If Germany is twice as great as B, then A should get twice as much political power as B. .Nowadays, people all admit that political rights should be distributed according to the value of each person. This principle is in line with absolute justice and fairness; Some people demand equality in all respects because they are equal to others in one respect; others demand priority in all respects because they are superior in one respect.

Two different types of government, the plebeian and the oligarchy, are especially prevalent in the world, because men have each chosen two different paths.Though masses and riches are everywhere, nobles and virtues are few in every state.So although in many cities a hundred rich men could easily be found, in 40α there was no city where a hundred noble or virtuous men could be found.In fact, however, a political system constructed on the basis of oligarchy (based on wealth) or populism (based on numbers) (consisting of absolute equality in every respect) is not a good form of government.A great deal of historical fact lay before us: none of these regimes could last.

5 According to the principle of causality, what is wrong at the beginning must be wrong in the end; oligarchism and populism should not stick to their own ideas at the beginning, and the proper way should be to give quantitative equality in certain aspects, respectively. In other respects, the equality of ratio is given as a principle, and the distribution of political rights should be based on equality of ratio. This theme comes from Plato: "Laws" 757E. .However, here is a fact that has to be admitted, that is, comparing the two, the civil government is less prone to internal strife, so it is safer than the oligarchy.For as far as internal strife is concerned, both parts of the oligarchy can fight: 10 the parties of the oligarchs and the parties of the populace can fight each other, and the parties of the oligarchs can also fight against themselves.In the populist regime, however, there is only a struggle between the populists and the oligarchs, and there is no quarrel within the populists, or at least no quarrels worth recording.The plebiscite also has the advantage of being closer to a republic than an oligarchy, and because a republic is based on a middle class, it is the most stable of the forms we are here dealing with. 15
Chapter Two
In order to study the various circumstances which give rise to internal strife and consequent coup d'état, we should first examine the general causes of their occurrence.This can be divided into three items, each of which we will briefly describe and discuss: (1) what kind of emotions cause disturbance; ; (2) Under what circumstances will events and 3 political disputes often break out.

We have already spoken of the main and general reasons for the sentiments of people demanding change.That is to say, when some people see that others who are equal to them are taking advantage of them, they will be filled with injustice and try to achieve this same state of equality.And other people who are indeed superior are filled with injustice when they see those who cannot compare with themselves get the same thing, or even get more, so they try to achieve superiority (that is, inequality). ) of the realm.There may be some truth to these emotions, or none of them should.Thus, relatively inferior people become revolutionaries in order to achieve equality, and equals become revolutionaries in order to achieve superiority (to achieve a certain inequality).

(End of this chapter)