Origin of State
•Every state is a community
of some kind, and every community is established with a view to some good; for
mankind always act in order to obtain that which they think good. But, if all
communities aim at some good, the state or political community, which is the
highest of all, and which embraces all the rest, aims at good in a greater
degree than any other, and at the highest good.
•Some people think that the
qualifications of a statesman, king, householder, and master are the same, and
that they differ, not in kind, but only in the number of their subjects. For
example, the ruler over a few is called a master; over more, the manager of a
household; over a still larger number, a statesman or king, as if there were no
difference between a great household and a small state. The distinction which
is made between the king and the statesman is as follows: When the government
is personal, the ruler is a king; when, according to the rules of the political
science, the citizens rule and are ruled in turn, then he is called a
statesman.
•But all this is a mistake;
for governments differ in kind, - As in other departments of science, so
in politics, the compound should always be resolved into the simple elements or
least parts of the whole. We must therefore look at the elements of which the
state is composed, in order that we may see in what the different kinds of rule
differ from one another, and whether any scientific result can be attained
about each one of them.
•In the first place there
must be a union of those who cannot exist without each other; namely, of male
and female, that the race may continue (and this is a union which is formed,
not of deliberate purpose, but because, in common with other animals and with
plants, mankind have a natural desire to leave behind them an image of
themselves), and of natural ruler and subject, that both may be preserved. For
that which can foresee by the exercise of mind is by nature intended to be lord
and master, and that which can with its body give effect to such foresight is a
subject, and by nature a slave; hence master and slave have the same interest.
•Out of these two
relationships between man and woman, master and slave, the first thing to arise
is the family, and Hesiod is right when he says, First house and wife and an ox
for the plough, for the ox is the poor man's slave. The family is the
association established by nature for the supply of men's everyday wants, and
the members of it are called by Charondas companions of the cupboard, and by
Epimenides the Cretan, companions of the manger.
•
•But when several families
are united, and the association aims at something more than the supply of daily
needs, the first society to be formed is the village. And the most natural form
of the village appears to be that of a colony from the family, composed of the
children and grandchildren, who are said to be suckled with the same milk. And
this is the reason why Hellenic states were originally governed by
kings; because the Hellenes were under royal rule before they came
together, as the barbarians still are. Every family is ruled by the
eldest, and therefore in the colonies of the family the kingly form of
government prevailed because they were of the same blood.
•As Homer says:
"Each one gives law to
his children and to his wives." For they lived dispersedly, as was the
manner in ancient times. Wherefore men say that the Gods have a king, because
they themselves either are or were in ancient times under the rule of a king.
For they imagine, not only the forms of the Gods, but their ways of life to be like
their own.
•When several villages are
united in a single complete community, large enough to be nearly or quite
self-sufficing, the state comes into existence, originating in the bare needs
of life, and continuing in existence for the sake of a good life. And
therefore, if the earlier forms of society are natural, so is the state, for it
is the end of them, and the nature of a thing is its end. For what each thing
is when fully developed, we call its nature, whether we are speaking of a man,
a horse, or a family. Besides, the final cause and end of a thing is the best,
and to be self-sufficing is the end and the best.
•Hence it is evident that
the state is a creation of nature, and that man is by nature a political
animal. And he who by nature and not by mere accident is without a state, is
either a bad man or above humanity; he is like the Tribe less, lawless,
heartless one, whom Homer denounces - the natural outcast is forthwith a
lover of war; he may be compared to an isolated piece at draughts.