[234] The account here given of Polity is derived from Aristotle's discussion of it in the _Politics_, book IV. chapters 8-13 (in Bekker's edition): Welldon, pages 274-292. Nothing has been added except a few necessary explanations. From what has been said it is clear that the second species of Polity is well exemplified in the system of government which existed in most of the German tribes in the time of Cæsar or Tacitus: a system in which the assembly of the warriors, including both horsemen and foot soldiers, determined the action of the community. The name Polity may also be applied to the government established at Athens by Solon, in which the power granted to the common people was only just so much as to prevent them from being disaffected[235]: and to the constitution of Cleisthenes, in which the assembly of the citizens was supreme, but did not hold its meetings very frequently, and showed no undue favour toward the poorer citizens. And, finally, all modern governments with popular representative institutions, though they differ from Aristotle's Polity in many important features, yet have more in common with that kind of government than with any other that Aristotle recognises. [235] Aristotle, _Politics_ II. 12. 5. Welldon, p. 95. (4) We turn to the three perverted forms of government. Democracy, the rule of the many (or rather of the poor, since the poor are always the most numerous) for the selfish interest of their own class, will be considered first, because it is the least strongly contrasted with the right polities which have been already examined. The word democracy, as has been noticed above, did not always denote an extreme democracy, for there was a time when it was applied to those moderate governments which Aristotle calls Polities: and Aristotle himself is not perfectly constant in his use of the word, since there is a passage[236] in which he makes it comprehend both moderate and extreme popular rule. The democracy however which we now have to consider is the extreme or thoroughgoing democracy. [236] _Politics_, IV. 6. 1-4. Welldon, pages 269, 270. From many passages in the Politics we learn what Aristotle regarded as the distinctive features and tendencies of complete democracy.