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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Polity of Athenians and Lacedaemonians by Xenophon: Athenians are ill advised, in their adoption, namely, of the less
respectable party, in a state divided by faction. But if so, they do
it advisedly. If they chose the more respectable, they would be
adopting those whose views and interests differ from their own, for
there is no state in which the best element is friendly to the people.
It is the worst element which in every state favours the democracy--on
the principle that like favours like.[19] It is simple enough then.
The Athenians choose what is most akin to themselves. Also on every
occasion on which they have attempted to side with the better classes,
it has not fared well with them, but within a short interval the
democratic party has been enslaved, as for instance in Boeotia;[20]
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