The Doctrine of Right, Duties and Religion for the Lower Class

[p. 249]

|249| employ them. Further, whether several authorities are united in one, e.g. whether the judicial and the military power are united in one official. The kind of a constitution is further determined by whether all citizens, inasmuch as they are citizens, have a share in the government. Such a constitution is a democracy. The degeneration of this is ochlocracy or the rule of the rabble, namely when that part of the people which has no property and is of dispositions contrary to right keeps the citizens who abide by right away from the affairs of state by force. Only with simple, uncorrupted customs and a small extent of the state can a democracy take place and maintain itself. – Aristocracy is the constitution in which only certain privileged families have the exclusive right to govern. The degeneration of this is oligarchy, namely when the number of families that have the right to govern is small. Such a condition is dangerous because in an oligarchy all the particular powers are exercised directly by one council. – Monarchy is the constitution in which the government is in the hands of one individual and remains hereditary in a family. In a hereditary monarchy the disputes and civil wars fall away which can occur in an elective kingdom upon a change of throne, because the ambition of powerful individuals can form no hope of the throne. The monarch, too, cannot exercise the whole governmental power directly, but entrusts a part of the exercise of the particular powers to colleges or also to estates of the Empire, which in the name of the king, under his supervision and direction, exercise the power transferred to them according to laws. In a monarchy civil freedom is more protected than in other constitutions. The degeneration of monarchy is despotism, namely when the regent exercises the government directly according to his arbitrary will. It is essential to monarchy that the government have vigour and proper power against the private interest of individuals.

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