Articles de cette rubrique

• II.1 On the nature of the three different governments

  20 août 2018, par Stewart

  There are three species of governments : REPUBLICAN, MONARCHICAL, and DESPOTIC. To identify their nature, we need no more than the notion the least educated of men have of them. I posit three definitions, or rather three givens : first, that the republican government is one in which the people (…)

• II.2 On republican government, and laws relative to democracy

  20 août 2018, par Stewart

  When, in a republic, the people as a whole holds the sovereign authority, it is a democracy. When the sovereign authority is in the hands of a portion of the people, that is called an aristocracy.
  The people, in a democracy, are in certain respects the monarch, and in other respects they are (…)

• II.3 Of laws relative to the nature of aristocracy

  20 août 2018, par Stewart

  In aristocracy, the sovereign authority is in the hands of a certain number of persons. It is they who make the laws and have them carried out, and the rest of the people are at most, with respect to them, like subjects in a monarchy with respect to the monarch.
  Suffrage there should not be (…)

• II.4 On laws in relation to the nature of monarchical government

  20 août 2018, par Stewart

  Intermediate powers which are subordinate and dependent constitute the nature of monarchical government : in other words, where one man alone governs by fundamental laws. I said subordinate and dependent intermediate powers : in truth, in a monarchy the prince is the source of all power, (…)

• II.5 On laws relative to the nature of the despotic state

  20 août 2018, par Stewart

  It results from the nature of despotic power that the man who alone wields it likewise has it wielded by one man alone. A man whose five senses constantly tell him that he is everything and others are nothing is naturally lethargic, ignorant, and sensual. So he abandons administration. But if he (…)