The Theory of Democracy—Part IV—The Principles of Justice: Constitutionality

THE THEORY OF DEMOCRACY PART IV 5. THE PRINCIPLES oF JusTICE: CoNSTITUTIONALITY (Continued) IN ORDER to clarify the notion of the mixed regime, as distinct from the mediaeval regimen regale et. politicum, we found it necessary to expose the inadequacies and errors which make the " traditional " classification of the forms of government capable of representation in a sixfold hi-columnar diagram. Aristotle's conception of the polity as a mixed regime cannot be understood except in terms of Aristotle's theory of Constitutional government, which he sharply distinguishes from Royal or absolute government and which he divides into subordinate forms according to the criteria for admission to citizenship and other public offices. For Aristotle there is only one mixed regime--the well-tempered constitution that results from an amelioration of the injustice of the oligarchical constitution, on the one hand, and of the contrary injustice of the democratic constitution, on the other. It will be seen at once that Aristotle's classification of the forms of government, involving this conception of the " middle constitution " and based upon the fundamental opposition between Royal and Political regimes, cannot possibly be represented schematically by the familiar diagram, which scholastic political theory perpetuates and which modem political writers both use and abuse. That diagram delineates the classification to be found in the De Regimine Principum of St. Thomas (Book I, Ch. 1, 8}. It is as follows: GOOD FORMS (Rule for tke common good) (I) By one: monarcky------ (2) By a few: aristocracy---- (8) By the many: polity or good democracy-------PERVERSIONS (Rule for private interests) (6) By one: tyranny (5) By a few: oligarchy (4} By the many: (bad) democracy 251 ~52 M. J. ADLER AND WALTER FARRELL We have already shown-in the preceding installment of Part IV, Section 5535"-that the theory schematized in the foregoing diagram is neither Platonic nor Aristotelian. The picture here presented is a caricature of the much subtler analysis to be found in Plato's Statesman.585b And though it can be defended •••• Vd. The Thomist, VI, 1, pp. 49-118. •••bIt is true that in The Statesman Plato makes a sixfold division of the forms of human government, all of which are contrasted with .a seventh form of government -the perfect government which would occur if a god were to administer the affairs of the human community, governii:J.g without laws because, possessing the true art or science of government, he could mete out absolute justice in each case. As contrasted with this model of perfect government, which Plato regards as mythical in character, all human political institutions are seen to be essentially imperfect, in that general rules or positive laws are required as a substitute for the true art of government, so that justice may be done, albeit imperfectly by the application of general rules to particular cases. It is this fact which gives Plato a criterion for determining when the imperfect government, that is the only government practicable on earth, achieves the excellence proper to its type. Good human regimes are those in which the administrators rule according to laws instituted, through c;ustom or otherwise, by the people, the whole community. The rulers or administrators are not law-makers. They are servants of the law. Human .government becomes perverted and unjust when the magistrates try to substitute their own rule for the rule of law, or when they try to legislate by issuing decrees which lack the authority of public institution. Though Plato's conception of constitutional government is inadequate, it does contain the primary note of the supremacy of positive law over all men, rulers as well as ruled. For Plato, then, all the good forms of human government are constitutional, and all the perversions are degrees of despotism, i. e., an absolute rule by men. The subordinate distinction among the three good forms (monarchy, aristocracy, democracy) is based entirely on the numerical criterion (one, few, or many administrators), and monarchy is the best simply because the most efficient in administration; tyranny is the worst of the three perversions because the most efficient in maladministration. Democracy, according to Plato, is both in the good and bad column. The least efficient...