Pufendorf: On the Duty of Man and Citizen according to Natural Law

1. The different forms of government [respublica] arise from the vesting of sovereignty in one man or in one assembly consisting of a few or of all.

2. The forms of a State [civitas] are either regular or irregular. The form is regular where sovereignty is so concentrated in one subject that, originating in one will, it pervades all the parts and affairs of the State, undivided and unimpaired. Where this is not found, the form of the State will be irregular.

3. There are three forms of a regular State: (1) where sovereignty is in the hands of one man, which is called monarchy; (2) where sovereignty is in the hands of an assembly which consists of selected Citizens only, which is called aristocracy; (3) where sovereignty is in the hands of an assembly consisting of all heads of households, which is called democracy. In the first the power-holder is called the monarch, in the second, the nobility, in the third, the people.

4. Power [potestas] is indeed the same in each of these forms. But monarchy has a marked advantage over the other forms, in that deliberation and decision, that is, the actual exercise of authority [Imperium], does not require stated times and places but may occur at any place or time; consequently a monarch is always in full readiness to perform acts of authority. But for decisions to be made by the nobility or the people, neither of which is one natural person, it is necessary that they convene at a fixed time and place for deliberation and decision on public affairs. This is the only way that the will of the senate and the people can be known, since it results from the consenting voices of the majority.

5. But it is the case with sovereignty, as it is with other rights, that it is well exercised in one place, badly and imprudently in another. Consequently some states are said to be healthy, others sick and corrupt. But we do not need to invent Special forms or kinds of government to cover such diseases. Some of the diseases which afflict states are in human beings, others are in the institutions themselves. Hence some are called personal faults, others institutional faults.