[HARRINGTON, James.]

The Commonwealth of Oceana.

First edition, first issue. ‘Oceana presents Harrington’s vision of the ideal state: an aristocracy of limited, balanced powers. Harrington believed that democracy is most stable where a strong middle class exists and that revolution is a consequence of the separation of economic and political power. These beliefs particularly influenced U.S. Pres. Thomas Jefferson’s democratic agrarianism … His ideas are said to have been partly responsible for such U.S. political developments as written constitutions, bicameral legislatures, and the indirect election of the president’ (Encyclopaedia Britannica).