The more an aristocracy approaches democracy, the more perfect it will be, and to the degree it approaches monarchy the less perfect it will become.
 Montesquieu, The Spirit of Law (1748). copy citation

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Author Montesquieu
Source The Spirit of Law
Topic democracy aristocracy
Date 1748
Language English
Reference
Note Translated by Anne M. Cohler, Basia Carolyn Miller and Harold Samuel Stone
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