this necessitates the selection and separation from the rest of those who have to take the helm in
political affairs; to decide; concerning them; and to give orders to other citizens; with a view to the
execution of their plans。 If; e。g。; even the people in a Democracy resolve on a war; a general must
head the army。 It is only by a Constitution that the abstraction … the State … attains life and reality;
but this involves the distinction between those who mand and those who obey。 … Yet
obedience seems inconsistent with liberty; and those who mand appear to do the very
opposite of that which the fundamental idea of the State; viz。 that of Freedom; requires。 It is;
however; urged that; … though the distinction between manding and obeying is absolutely
necessary; because affairs could not go on without it … and indeed this seems only a pulsory
limitation; external to and even contravening freedom in the abstract … the constitution should be at
least so framed; that the citizens may obey as little as possible; and the smallest modicum of free
volition be left to the mands of the superiors; … that the substance of that for which
subordination is necessary; even in its most important bearings; should be decided and resolved on
by the People … by the will of many or of all the citizens; though it is supposed to be thereby
provided that the State should be possessed of vigour and strength as a reality … an individual
unity。 … The primary consideration is; then; the distinction between the governing and the governed;
and political constitutions in the abstract have been rightly divided into Monarchy; Aristocracy;
and Democracy; which gives occasion; however; to the remark that Monarchy itself must be
further divided into Despotism and Monarchy proper; that in all the divisions to which the leading
Idea gives rise; only the generic character is to be made prominent; … it being not intended thereby
that the particular category under review should be exhausted as a Form; Order; or Kind in its
concrete development。 But especially it must be observed; that the above…mentioned divisions
admit of a multitude of particular modifications; … not only such as lie within the limits of those
classes themselves; … but also such as are mixtures of several of these essentially distinct classes;
and isshapen; unstable; and inconsistent forms。 In such a collision; the
concerning question is; what is the best constitution; that is; by what arrangement; organisation or
mechanism of the power of the State its object can be most surely attained。 This object may
indeed be variously understood; for instance; as the calm enjoyment of life on the part of the
citizens; or as Universal Happiness。 Such aims have suggested the so…called Ideals of Constitution;
and; … as a particular branch of the subject; … Ideals of the Education of Princes (Fenelon); or of
the governing body … the aristocracy at large (Plato); for the chief point they treat of is the
condition of those subjects who stand at the head of affairs; and in these ideals the concrete details
of political organisation are not at all considered。 The inquiry into the best constitution is frequently
treated as if not only the theory were an affair of subjective independent conviction; but as if the
introduction of a constitution recognised as the best; … or as superior to others; … could be the
result of a resolve adopted in this theoretical manner; as if the form of a constitution were a matter
of free choice; determined by nothing else but reflection。 Of this artless fashion was that
deliberation; … not indeed of the Persian people; but of the Persian grandees; who had conspired
to overthrow the pseudo…Smerdis and the Magi; after their undertaking had succeeded; and when
there was no scion of the royal family living; … as to what constitution they should introduce into