The Constitutions of Antiquity
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monarchical, aristocratic, and democratic constitutions, about oligarchies
and democracies, about tyrannies and kingships, about the origin and
nature of government, and about the polity—that regime described by
Aristotle as essentially a limited democracy blending the monarchical,
aristocratic, and democratic elements of government, in which the greatest political power is exercised by landholders. This was the dream of
Greek democracy, but it was not exactly the model the Americans wished
to apply to the infant Republic of the United States. This was because
Greek politics in ancient times was the politics primarily of ‘‘city-states’’—
compact in territory, very limited in population, and quite unlike the thirteen original States that formed the United State ̸