The Complete Aristotle (eng.)

of
friendships, too, some are more and others less truly friendships.
And the claims of justice differ too; the duties of parents to
children, and those of brothers to each other are not the same, nor
those of comrades and those of fellow-citizens, and so, too, with
the other kinds of friendship. There is a difference, therefore,
also between the acts that are unjust towards each of these classes
of associates, and the injustice increases by being exhibited
towards those who are friends in a fuller sense; e.g. it is a more
terrible thing to defraud a comrade than a fellow-citizen, more
terrible not to help a brother than a stranger, and more terrible
to wound a father than any one else. And the demands of justice
also seem to increase with the intensity of the friendship, which
implies that friendship and justice exist between the same persons
and have an equal extension.
    Now all forms of community are like parts of the political
community; for men journey together with a view to some particular
advantage, and to provide something that they need for the purposes
of life; and it is for the sake of advantage that the political
community too seems both to have come together originally and to
endure, for this is what legislators aim at, and they call just
that which is to the common advantage. Now the other communities
aim at advantage bit by bit, e.g. sailors at what is advantageous
on a voyage with a view to making money or something of the kind,
fellow-soldiers at what is advantageous in war, whether it is
wealth or victory or the taking of a city that they seek, and
members of tribes and demes act similarly (Some communities seem to
arise for the sake or pleasure, viz. religious guilds and social
clubs; for these exist respectively for the sake of offering
sacrifice and of companionship. But all these seem to fall under
the political community; for it aims not at present advantage but
at what is advantageous for life as a whole), offering sacrifices
and arranging gatherings for the purpose, and assigning honours to
the gods, and providing pleasant relaxations for themselves. For
the ancient sacrifices and gatherings seem to take place after the
harvest as a sort of firstfruits, because it was at these seasons
that people had most leisure. All the communities, then, seem to be
parts of the political community; and the particular kinds
friendship will correspond to the particular kinds of
community.
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10
    There are three kinds of constitution, and an equal number of
deviation-forms—perversions, as it were, of them. The constitutions
are monarchy, aristocracy, and thirdly that which is based on a
property qualification, which it seems appropriate to call
timocratic, though most people are wont to call it polity. The best
of these is monarchy, the worst timocracy. The deviation from
monarchy is tyrany; for both are forms of one-man rule, but there
is the greatest difference between them; the tyrant looks to his
own advantage, the king to that of his subjects. For a man is not a
king unless he is sufficient to himself and excels his subjects in
all good things; and such a man needs nothing further; therefore he
will not look to his own interests but to those of his subjects;
for a king who is not like that would be a mere titular king. Now
tyranny is the very contrary of this; the tyrant pursues his own
good. And it is clearer in the case of tyranny that it is the worst
deviation-form; but it is the contrary of the best that is worst.
Monarchy passes over into tyranny; for tyranny is the evil form of
one-man rule and the bad king becomes a tyrant. Aristocracy passes
over into oligarchy by the badness of the rulers, who distribute
contrary to equity what belongs to the city-all or most of the good
things to themselves, and office always to the same people, paying
most regard to wealth; thus the rulers are few and are bad men
instead of the most worthy. Timocracy passes over into democracy;
for these are coterminous, since it is the ideal even of timocracy
to be the rule of the majority, and all who have the property
qualification count as equal. Democracy is the least bad of the
deviations; for in its case the form of constitution is but a
slight deviation. These then are the changes to which constitutions
are most subject; for these are the smallest and easiest
transitions.
    One may find resemblances to the constitutions and, as it were,
patterns of them even in households. For the