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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 April 2024
Chapter 1: About the Nature of the Three Different Governments
There are three species of government: Republican, Monarchical, and Despotic. In order to discover their nature it suffices, the idea of it that the least instructed men have. I assume three definitions, or three facts rather: the one, that republican government is that in which the body of the people, or only a part of the people, has the sovereign [authority]; monarchy is that in which a single person governs, but by fixed and established laws instead of, [as] in despotic government, a single person without law and rule overbears all by his will and his caprices.
That is what I call the nature of each government. It is required to see what are the laws which follow directly from this nature and which, consequently, are the first fundamental laws.
Chapter 2: About Republican Government, and About the Laws Relative to the Democracy
When, in the republic, the body of the people [holds] the sovereign authority, it is a democracy. When the sovereign authority is in the hands of a part of the people, that is called an aristocracy.
In a democracy the people, in certain respects, is the monarch. In other respects they are subjects.
The people can be a monarch only by their votes, which are their wills. The will of the sovereign is the sovereign himself. The laws that establish the right of suffrage, therefore, are fundamental in this government. In effect, there it is as important to settle how, by whom, to whom and or what votes ought to be given, as it is to know what the monarch is in a monarchy, and by which manner he ought to govern.
Libanius (a) said that, “at Athens a stranger who meddled in the people's assembly was punished by death.” That is because such a man usurped the right of sovereignty.
It is essential to fix the number of citizens who ought to form the assemblies. Without that one could ignore whether the people or only a part of the people has spoken. In Lacedemonia ten thousand citizens were required.
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