178 



ARISTO CRA CY AND E VOL UTION 



Book II 

 Chapter 4 



There is a 

 competitive 

 element even 

 in autocracies, 



and demo- 

 cracies are 

 essentially 

 competitive. 



Competition, indeed, is implicit in every form of 

 government. Were it absent in any, it would be 

 absent in complete autocracies ; but even in these 

 it is latent, and always ready to come into operation ; 

 for the most absolute autocrat, if he happen to make 

 his rule sufficiently odious to a sufficient number of 

 his subjects, " postquam cerdonibus esse timendus 

 c&perat"-'w\\\ y as history shows us, be assassinated 

 or got rid of somehow, and some other candidate 

 for power, probably an autocrat also, will be put in 

 his place, and will either retain or lose it, according 

 as experiment shows him to be a tolerable ruler, or 

 the reverse. Here is political competition in its 

 most rudimentary form ; but it is competition none 

 the less ; and it generally involves a competition 

 more advanced than itself; for the most absolute 

 autocrat is obliged to govern through ministers ; and 

 these rise and fall according as experiment shows 

 them to be fitter or less fit for the accomplishment 

 of their master's purposes. If, then, even the power 

 of the autocrat rests ultimately on competition and 

 practical experiment, much more does the power of 

 government, under aristocratic and oligarchic con- 

 stitutions. Oligarchies invariably aim at ruling 

 through their strongest members ; and which are 

 the strongest is shown by experimental competition 

 only ; whilst political democracy, under all its forms, 

 is experimental competition open and undisguised. 

 A Gladstone remains in power because, as his years 

 of office succeed each other, he satisfies the majority 

 by the manner in which he governs them ; and his 



