ARISTOCRACY, from the Greek aristocrdtia (dpurronparia), according to its etymology, means a government of the best or most excellent (iipurrot). This name, which, like optimates in Latin, was applied to the educated and wealthy class 1 in the state, soon lost its moral and ob tained a purely political sense : so that aristocracy came to mean merely a go vernment of a few, the rich being always the minority of a nation. When the sovereign power does not belong to one person, it is shared by a number of per sons either greater or less than half the community : if this number is less than half, the government is called an aris tocracy, if it is greater than half, the government is called a democracy. Since, however, women and children have in all ages and countries (except in cases of hereditary succession) been excluded from the exercise of the sovereign power, the number of persons enumerated in estimating the form of the government is confined to the adult males, and does not comprehend every individual of the so ciety, like a census of population. Thus, if a nation contains 2,000,000 souls, of which 500,000 are adult males, if the sovereign power is lodged in a body con sisting of 500 or 600 persons, the govern ment is an aristocracy : if it is lodged in a body consisting of 400,000 persons, the government is a democracy, though this number is considerably lees than half the entire population. It is also to be remarked, that where there is a class of subjects or slaves who are excluded from all political rights and all share in the sovereignty, the numbers of the dominant community are alone taken into the ac count in determining the name we are to give to the form of the government. Thus, Athens at the time of the Pelopon nesian war had conquered a number of independent communities in the islands of the /Egean Sea and on the coasts of Asia Minor and Thrace, which were reduced to different degrees of subjection, but were all substantially dependent on the Athenians. Nevertheless, as every adult male Athenian citizen had a share in the sovereign power, the government of Athens was called not an aristocracy, but a democracy. Again, the Athenians had a class of slaves four or five times more numerous than the whole body of citizens of all ages and sexes; yet as a majority of the citizens possessed the sovereign power, the government was called a democracy. In like manner, the
government of South Carolina in the United States of America is called a de mocracy, because every adult freeman, who is a native or has obtained the rights of citizenship by residence, has a vote in the election of members of the legislative assembly, although the num ber of the slaves in that state exceeds that of the free population.
An Aristocracy, therefore, may be de fined to be a form of government in which the sovereign power is divided among a number of persons less than half the adult males of the entire community where there is not a class of subjects or slaves, or the dominant community where there is a class of subjects or slaves.
Sometimes the word aristocracy is used to signify not a form of government, but a class of persons in a state. In this sense it is applied not merely to the per sons composing the sovereign body in a state of which the government is aristo cratical, but to a class or political party in any state, whatever be the form of its government. When there is a privileged order of persons in a community having a title or civil dignity, and when no person, not belonging to this body, is admitted to share in the sovereign power, this class is often called the aristocracy, and the aris tocratic party or class ; and all persons not belonging to it are called the popular party, or, for shortness, the people. Un der these circumstances many rich per sons would not belong to the aristocratic class ; but if a change takes place in the constitution of the state, by which the disabilities of the popular order are re moved, and the rich obtain a large share of the sovereign power, then the rich become the aristocratic class, as opposed to the middle ranks and the poor. This may be illustrated by the history of Florence, in which state the nobili popo lani, or popular nobles (as they were called), at one time were opposed to the aristocratic party, but by a change in the constitution became themselves the chiefs of the aristocratic, and the enemies of the popular party. In England, at the pre sent time, aristocracy, as the name of a class, is generally applied to the rich, as opposed to the rest of the community : sometimes, however, it is used in a nar rower sense, and is restricted to the nobi lity, or members of the peerage.