of the community, others by the whole; some out of
part, others out of the whole; some by vote, others
by lot: and each of these different modes admit
of a four-fold subdivision; for either all may elect
all by vote or by lot; and when all elect, they may
either proceed without any distinction, or they may
elect by a certain division of tribes, wards, or companies,
till they have gone through the whole community:
and some magistrates may be elected one way, and others
another. Again, if some magistrates are elected
either by vote or lot of all the citizens, or by the
vote of some and the lot of some, or some one way
and some another; that is to say, some by the vote
of all, others by the lot of all, there will then be
twelve different methods of electing the magistrates,
without blending the two together. Of these there
are two adapted to a democracy; namely, to have all
the magistrates chosen out of all the people, either
by vote or lot, or both; that is to say, some of them
by lot, some by vote. In a free state the whole
community should not elect at the same time, but some
out of the whole, or out of some particular rank; and
this either by lot, or vote, or both: and they
should elect either out of the whole community, or
out of some particular persons in it, and this both
by lot and vote. In an oligarchy it is proper
to choose some magistrates out of the whole body of
the citizens, some by vote, some by lot, others by
both: by lot is most correspondent to that form
of government. In a free aristocracy, some magistrates
[1300b] should be chosen out of the community in general,
others out of a particular rank, or these by choice,
those by lot. In a pure oligarchy, the magistrates
should be chosen out of certain ranks, and by certain
persons, and some of those by lot, others by both methods;
but to choose them out of the whole community is not
correspondent to the nature of this government.
It is proper in an aristocracy for the whole community
to elect their magistrates out of particular persons,
and this by vote. These then are all the different
ways of electing of magistrates; and they have been
allotted according to the nature of the different
communities; but what mode of proceeding is proper
for different communities, or how the offices ought
to be established, or with what powers shall be particularly
explained. I mean by the powers of a magistrate,
what should be his particular province, as the management
of the finances or the laws of the state; for different
magistrates have different powers, as that of the general
of the army differs from the clerk of the market.
CHAPTER XVI
Copyrights
Politics: A Treatise on Government from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.
