other hand the value of the golden mean more beneficial, than in the realm of government. Too little participation by the people means autocracy, which results in tyranny. On the other hand, too much participation by the people means democracy, which results in mobocracy. It is the golden mean, the republic—the standard form of government, strictly and literally adhered to—which gives just the right amount of participation by the people in governmental affairs and causes the political plant to thrive and reach its best development and its full fruition.
Aristotle made the most valuable contributions to political science that were made prior to the founding of this republic. He was the first writer to undertake a classification of the forms of government. As a philosopher he knew that there must be three degrees for an accurate classification, and he divided government into three forms. He knew that there should be two extremes and a form corresponding to the golden mean in the realm of government as in other fields of activity. He named monarchy as one extreme and defined it as government of one. He named democracy as the other extreme and defined it as government of the masses; but, the standard form not having been evolved, the golden mean not having been worked out in his day, he could not
