ABSTRACT
Some of the most splendid traditions of the race are associated with the eternal quest of mankind for ways and means with which to control its social destiny for noble ends. At the very outset the seekers are confronted by two conflicting theories concerning the problem itself. According to one of them, government, namely, human control, is merely a problem in invention, of determining what is best and adapting our means to the desired end. According to the other theory, government is not a matter of human choice at all but an inevitable, natural growth in which the purposes of man have no part. Each of these doctrines is untenable if pushed to an exclusive and logical conclusion; yet somewhere between them lays important truth. When Aristotle takes up the problem of finding the best material for a democracy he is no less insistent upon the economic element as the fundamental factor.
