Page:Back to the Republic.djvu/39

 include the republic as the golden mean. He was therefore forced in his classification to do what we are frequently called upon to do when we cannot find the thing we need—namely, to use the best substitute available—and in lieu of the golden mean he chose aristocracy and defined it as government of the minority. Aristocracy, however, has the same elements and is of the essence of autocracy. It has the element of heredity, the element of class, the element of privilege, and generally the element of militarism, and deserves no classification separate and apart from autocracy, any more than bread deserves a classification separate and apart from food.

There have been several crude classifications of forms of government, and a mere statement of them is sufficient to demonstrate how shallow had been the thinking upon political science previous to the founding of this government.

Von Mohl classified the forms of government as patriarchal, theocratic, despotic, classic, feudal, and constitutional. The classification of Von Mohl is an apt illustration of the loose thinking and inaccurate use of governmental terms. It results only in confusing the mind.

Bluntschli followed the classification of Aristotle and added "Idiokratie," which he defined as a state in which the supreme ruler is considered