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Along with democracy and monarchy, aristocracy is one of the three kinds of government that Rousseau outlines in Book III. (Rousseau uses the word “government” to refer only to the executive branch of the state—he always thinks the people as a whole should legislate, in their capacity as the sovereign.) Whereas democracy involves all the citizens taking an equal part in government and monarchy vests all power in a single administrator or magistrate, an aristocratic government gives a few magistrates power over implementing the law. Rousseau further notes that there are three kinds of aristocracy. The first is “natural” aristocracy, which only arises in “primitive” communities where elders have power. The second is “hereditary” aristocracy, in which people inherit administrative positions. Because hereditary aristocracy leads to incompetent leaders, Rousseau considers it “the worst of all governments.” Finally, there is “elective” aristocracy, in which the people choose government executives (either randomly, in a small society or for positions that everyone is capable of doing, or because of their virtues, in all other cases). Because this both centralizes power enough to be effective and ensures that people charged with government authority are up to the job, Rousseau considers elective aristocracy the best way to organize a government.
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Aristocracy Term Timeline in The Social Contract
The timeline below shows where the term Aristocracy appears in The Social Contract. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Book 3, Chapter 3: Classification of Governments
...serves as a magistrate, there is democracy. If a few citizens are magistrates, there is aristocracy. And if there is one magistrate who has fundamental power over government, there is monarchy....
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...of citizens should have relatively fewer magistrates. Therefore, he concludes, “democratic government suits small states, aristocratic government suits states of intermediate size and monarchy suits large states.” But there can be...
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Book 3, Chapter 5: Aristocracy
...works and speaks for the sovereign (the people). Then, he distinguishes three different kinds of aristocracy: “natural, elective and hereditary.” Natural aristocracy involves small “primitive” communities being led by elders and...
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Aristocracy is not suited for tiny countries where “the execution of the law follows directly from...
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Book 3, Chapter 6: Monarchy
...at conquering territory, they “are almost always inadequate” at administrating it. In a democracy or aristocracy, government is always continuous, but when a monarch dies, electing a new one is complicated,...
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Book 3, Chapter 10: The Abuse of Government and its Tendency to Degenerate
...or more specifically ochlocracy, oligarchy, or tyranny (if the government started out as a democracy, aristocracy, or monarchy, respectively). “Tyrant,” Rousseau clarifies, is often used to mean any powerful king who...
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Book 4, Chapter 3: Elections
...“a heavy responsibility” for which it would be unfair to single people out. In an aristocratic government, the governing elites would choose their successors, and voting is the obvious way to...
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Book 4, Chapter 4: The Roman Comitia
...these systems had different origins and benefits, but the second one, which was closest to aristocracy, was the most effective.
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