117.   Experts  in  Monarchies  and  Democracies

Throughout  the  Middle  Ages,  and  indeed  until  a
hundred  and  fifty  years  ago,  democracies  were  small,
or  turbulent  and  ephemeral.  Venice  was,  no  doubt,
a  powerful  and  prosperous  republic  for  many  centu-
ries, but,  far  from  being  democratic,  was  an  aristoc-
racy of  a  restricted  type,  and  furnishes  no  exception
to  the  general  rule  that  democracies  have  in  the
past  been  small  or  short-lived.  At  the  close  of
the  Middle  Ages  the  great  states  of  modern  Europe
began  to  assume  their  present  form,  and  in  every
case  they  were  ruled  by  monarchs  who  employed,
not  oflficials  appointed  for  short  terms  and  replacing
one  another  by  rotation,  but  men  whom  they  retained
permanently  and  who  were  skilled  in  the  art  of
administration.  The  new  monarchies  meant  govern-
ment by  experts,  and  that  was  one  of  the  chief  secrets
of  their  efficiency  and  predominance.
'  Die  Kai.serlichen  Verwaltung.sbeamten  bis  auf  Diocletian.  Otto
Hirschfeld.    £d  ed.,  1905.    See  especially  the  concluding  chapter.
