here the good
of one man only is the object of government, an oligarchy considers
only the rich, and a democracy only the poor; but neither of them have a
common good in view.

CHAPTER VIII

It will be necessary to enlarge a little more upon the nature of each
of these states, which is not without some difficulty, for he who would
enter into a philosophical inquiry into the principles of them, and not
content himself with a superficial view of their outward conduct, must
pass over and omit nothing, but explain the true spirit of each of them.
A tyranny then is, as has been said, a monarchy, where one person has
an absolute and despotic power over the whole community and every member
therein: an oligarchy, where the supreme power of the state is lodged
with the rich: a democracy, on the contrary, is where those have it who
are worth little or nothing. But the first difficulty that arises from
the distinctions which we have laid down is this, should it happen that
the majority of the inhabitants who possess the power of the state (for
this is a democracy) should be rich, the question is, how does this
agree with what we have said? The same difficulty occurs, should it ever
happen that the poor compose a smaller part of the people than the rich,
but from their superior abilities acquire the supreme power; for this is
what they call an oligarchy; it should seem then that our definition
of the different states was not correct: nay, moreover, could any one
suppose that the majority of the people were poor, and the minority
rich, and then describe the state in this manner, that an oligarchy
was a government in which the rich, being few in number, possessed the
supreme power, and that a democracy was a state in which the poor, being
many in number, possessed it, still there will be another difficulty;
for what name shall we give to those states we have been describing? I
mean, that b which the greater number are rich, and that in which the
lesser number are poor (where each of these possess the supreme power),
if there are no other states than those we have described. It seems
therefore evident to reason, that whether the supreme power is vested
in the hands of many or few may be a matter of accident; but that it
is clear enough, that when it is in the hands of the few, it will be
a government of the rich; when in the hands of the many, it will be a
government of the poor; since in all countries there are many poor and