A fifth form of democracy … is that in which, not the law, but the multitude, have the supreme power, and supersede the law by their decrees. This is a state of affairs brought about by demagogues. For in democracies which are subject to the law, the best citizens hold the first place and there are no demagogues; but where the laws are not supreme, there demagogues spring up. For the people becomes a monarch, and is many in one; and the many have the power in their hands, not as individuals but collectively …. At all events this sort of democracy, which is now a monarch, and no longer under the control of law, seeks to exercise monarchical sway, and grows into a despot; the flatterer is held in honour; this sort of democracy being relative to other democracies what tyranny is to other forms of monarchy.
The spirit of both is the same, and they alike
exercise a despotic rule over the better citizens. The decrees of the demos
corresponds to the edicts of the tyrant; and the demagogue is to the one what
the flatterer is to the other. Both have
great power; – the flatterer with the tyrant, the demagogue with democracies of
the kind which we are describing. The
demagogues make the decrees of the people override the laws, by referring all
things to the popular assembly. And
therefore they grow great, because the people has all things in their hands, and
they hold in their hands the votes of the people, who are too ready to listen
to them. … Such a democracy is fairly open to the objection that it is not a
constitution at all; for where the laws have no authority, there is no constitution. The law ought to be supreme over all …. So that if democracy be a real form of
government, the sort of system in which all things are regulated by decrees is
clearly not even a democracy in the true sense of the word, for decrees relate
only to particulars.
[1]
Aristotle, Politics (c. 350 BC)
[1] Aristotle, The Basic Works of Aristotle, ed. Richard McKeon (New York: Modern
Library/Random House, 2001), pp. 1212, 1213 [Politics, Book IV, Ch. 4].
This edition of Politics was translated
by Benjamin Jowett.
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