Note (13) — Chapter I

The nature of democracy is set forth by Periklês in the Funeral Oration, Thucydides, ii. 37: ὄνομα μὲν διὰ τὸ μὴ ἐς ὀλίγους ἀλλ' ἐς πλείονας οἰκεῖν δημοκρατία κέκληται· μέτεστι δὲ κατὰ μὲν τοὺς νόμους πρὸς τὰ ἴδια διάφορα πᾶσι τὸ ἴσον, κατὰ δὲ τὴν ἀξίωσιν ὡς ἕκαστος ἐν τῷ εὐδοκιμεῖ. It is set forth still more clearly by Athênagoras of Syracuse, vi. 39, where the functions of different classes in a democracy are clearly distinguished: ἐγὼ δέ φημι πρῶτα μὲν δῆμον ξύμπαν ὠνομάσθαι, ὀλιγαρχίαν δὲ μέρος, ἔπειτα φύλακας μὲν ἀρίστους εἶναι χρημάτων τοὺς πλουσίους, βουλεῦσαι δ' ἂν βέλτιστα τοὺς ξυνετοὺς, κρῖναι δ' ἂν ἀκούσαντας ἄριστα τοὺς πολλοὺς, καὶ ταῦτα ὁμοίως καὶ κατὰ μέρη καὶ ξύμπαντα ἐν δημοκρατίᾳ ἰσομοιρεῖν. Here a distinct sphere is assigned both to wealth and to special intelligence. Nearly the same division is drawn by a writer who might by comparison be called aristocratic. Isokratês (Areop. 29) holds that the management of public affairs should be immediately in the hands of the men of wealth and leisure, who should act as servants of the People, the People itself being their master—or, as he does not scruple to say, Tyrant—with full power of reward and punishment: ἐκεῖνοι διεγνωκότες ἦσαν ὅτι δεῖ τὸν μὲν δῆμον ὥσπερ τύραννον καθιστάναι τὰς ἀρχὰς καὶ κολάζειν τοὺς ἐξαμαρτάνοντας καὶ κρίνειν περὶ τῶν ἀμφισβητουμένων, τοὺς δὲ σχολὴν ἄγειν δυναμένους καὶ βίον ἱκανὸν κεκτημένους ἐπιμελεῖσθαι τῶν κοινῶν ὥσπερ οἰκέτας, καὶ δικαίους μὲν γενομένους ἐπαινεῖσθαι καὶ στέργειν ταύτῃ τῇ τιμῇ, κακῶς δὲ διοικήσαντας μηδεμιᾶς συγγνώμης τυγχάνειν, ἀλλὰ ταῖς μεγίσταις ζημίαις περιπίπτειν. This he elsewhere (Panath 166) calls democracy with a mixture of aristocracy—not oligarchy (τὴν δημοκρατίαν τὴν ἀριστοκρατίᾳ μεμιγμένην).

The unfavourable meaning which is often attached to the word democracy, when it does not arise from simple ignorance, probably arises from the use of the word by Aristotle. He makes (Politics, iii. 7) three lawful forms of government, kingship (βασιλεία), aristocracy (ἀριστοκρατία),and what he calls specially πολιτεία or commonwealth. Of these he makes three corruptions, tyranny, oligarchy, and democracy (τυραννίς, ὀλιγαρχία, δημοκρατία), defining democracy to be a government carried on for the special benefit of the poor (πρὸς τὸ συμφέρον τὸ τῶν ἀπόρων). In this there is something of a philosopher’s contempt for all popular government, and it is certain that Aristotle’s way of speaking is not that which is usual in the Greek historians. Polybios, like Herodotus and Thucydides, uses the word democracy in the old honourable sense, and he takes (ii. 38) as his special type of democracy the constitution of the Achaian League, which certainly had in it a strong element of practical aristocracy (see History of Federal Government, cap. v.): ἰσηγορίας καὶ παρρησίας καὶ καθόλου δημοκρατίας ἀληθινῆς σύστημα καὶ προαίρεσιν εἰλικρινεστέραν οὐκ ἂν εὕροι τις τῆς παρὰ τοῖς Ἀχαιοῖς ὑπαρχούσης. In short, what Aristotle calls πολιτεία Polybios calls δημοκρατία; what Aristotle calls δημοκρατία Polybios calls ὀχλοκρατία.