There is a passage in Chapter 11 of Book III of Aristotle's Politics that has not been given the attention it deserves in modern discussions of Aristetlian political philosophy. Certainly it has not been given enough attention in the theory of democracy and in theories of popular legislation. I want to remedy that neglect. Indeed the aim of this chapter is to exaggerate the importance of this passage – to light it up in a way that may go far beyond the intentions of its author – in order to benefit from its illumination of other themes and passages whose importance for the Aristotelian project is, by contrast, indisputable.

The passage I have in mind is Aristotle's attempt to answer a question he poses about political sovereignty at the beginning of Chapter 10:

After reviewing some of these consequences, Aristotle begins Chapter 11 by saying that there might be some truth in the principle that the people at large rather than the few best ought to be in power in the polis. He says (and this is the passage I want to focus on),