how did aristotle define democracy rule of the

For now, he simply says that these pairs of people come together and form a household, which exists for the purpose of meeting the needs of daily life (such as food, shelter, clothing, and so forth). The translation is that of Martin Ostwald; see the bibliography for full information. This question cannot be settled here. We are likely to regard politics (and politicians) as aiming at ignoble, selfish ends, such as wealth and power, rather than the best end, and many people regard the idea that politics is or should be primarily concerned with creating a particular moral character in citizens as a dangerous intrusion on individual freedom, in large part because we do not agree about what the best end is. The reason is that the legislator has not educated them to be capable of being at leisure (1334a6). When Aristotle talks about participation, he means that each citizen should participatedirectly in the assembly not by voting for representatives and should willingly serve on juries to help uphold the laws. This brings us to perhaps the most contentious of political questions: how should the regime be organized? Having established these as the relevant criteria, in Book III Chapter 7 Aristotle sets out the six kinds of regimes. Aristotle believes that we ought to be more concerned with other matters; moneymaking is beneath the attention of the virtuous man. These people, of course, were all men. Those are rules of law, but the Rule of Law is one of the ideals of our political morality and it refers to the ascendancy of law as such and of the institutions of the legal system in a system of governance. We should also examine the ideal regimes proposed by other thinkers. Even here at the very beginning of thePolitics Aristotle is showing the link between ethics and politics and the importance of a well-constructed city in making it possible for the citizens to live well. Citiesthat are held to be in a fine condition In Book II, Aristotle changes his focus from the household to the consideration of regimes that are in use in some of the cities that are said to be well managed and any others spoken about by certain persons that are held to be in a fine condition (1260a30). Aristotle says that both groups the oligarchs and democrats offer judgments about this, but neither of them gets it right, because the judgment concerns themselves, and most people are bad judges concerning their own things (1280a14). 'persuaders' or 'means of persuasion'. A very thorough introduction and commentary are included with this translation of the. Plato and Aristotle tow of the most influential figures in Greek philosophy. The citizens of a political community are partners, and as with any other partnership they pursue a common good. (Read Madeleine Albright's Britannica essay on democracy.) There would be another drawback to creating a city in which everything is held in common. For example, in order to understand political phenomena, he had his students collect information on the political organization and history of 158 different cities. Note again the contrast with modern Western nation-states where there are very few opportunities to participate directly in politics and most people struggle to avoid serving on juries. The discussion will, to the extent possible, follow the organization of thePolitics. Human beings, for better or worse, cannot do this. Creating a polity is a difficult thing to do, and although he provides many examples of democracies and oligarchies Aristotle does not give any examples of existing polities or of polities that have existed in the past. Now he tells us why: those who are as different [from other men] as the soul from the body or man from beast and they are in this state if their work is the use of the body, and if this is the best that can come from them are slaves by nature.For he is a slave by nature who is capable of belonging to another which is also why he belongs to another and who participates in reason only to the extent of perceiving it, but does not have it (1254b16-23). Any leader is then adequate [to effect revolution] (1305a29). For equality is the same thing [as justice] for persons who are similar, and it is difficult for a regime to last if its constitution is contrary to justice (1332b25). The list below is not intended to be comprehensive. Democracy | Definition, History, Meaning, Types, Examples, & Facts We will not consider all the details of the different regimes Aristotle describes, but some of them are important enough to examine here. Aristotle's Definition Of Democracy Essay | ipl.org The term is derived from the Greek dmokratia, which was coined from dmos ("people") and kratos ("rule") in the middle of the 5th century bce to denote the political systems then existing in some Greek city-states, notably Athens. We are left with the position that while some people are indeed slaves by nature, and that slavery is good for them, it is extremely difficult to find out who these people are, and that therefore it is not the case that slavery is automatically just either for people taken in war or for children of slaves, though sometimes it is (1256b23). The former believe that because they are greater in material wealth they should also be greater in political power, while the latter claim that because all citizens are equally free political power should also be equally distributed, which allows the many poor to rule because of their superior numbers. The standard edition of Aristotles complete works. In so doing, he foresaw the basis of Hobbes's "new" because finally "realistic"-political science. To convey this, some translations use the word city-state in place of the worldpolis. Although none of us today lives in apolis , we should not be too quick to dismiss Aristotles observations on the way of life of thepolis as irrelevant to our own political partnerships. Even in Athens, the most democratic city in Greece, no more than 15 percent of the population was ever allowed the benefits of citizenship, including political participation. Thus . Their existence, like those of the slaves and the women, is for the benefit of the free male citizens. There is certainly no evidence that Alexanders subsequent career was much influenced by Aristotles teaching, which is uniformly critical of war and conquest as goals for human beings and which praises the intellectual, contemplative lifestyle. After all, people find happiness in many different ways. Second, in Chapter Six, Aristotle points out that not everyone currently held in slavery is in fact a slave by nature. This would seem to legitimate slavery, and yet there are two significant problems. That man is much more a political animal than any kind of bee or any herd animal is clear. Nothing is further removed from affection and from a political partnership (1295b22). Again Aristotles main concern is with life at peace, not life at war. The difference between this city and other cities is that the principles that it teaches its citizens are the correct principles for living the good life. And Aristotle would say that unless you included thattelos in your description, you wouldnt really have described or understood the knife. It is important for the person devising the ideal city to learn from this mistake. Indeed, Aristotle says that when the master can do so he avoids labor even to the extent of avoiding the oversight of those who must engage in it: [F]or those to whom it is open not to be bothered with such things [i.e. A city is not just a big village, but is fundamentally different: The partnership arising from [the union of] several villages that is complete is the city. This is also one reason why many students have difficulty reading his work: no teachers lecture notes ever make complete sense to anyone else (their meaning can even elude their author at times). It is only the character of the farming population that makes the arrangements Aristotle describes possible: The other sorts of multitude out of which the remaining sorts of democracy are constituted are almost all much meaner than these: their way of life is a mean one, with no task involving virtue among the things that occupy the multitude of human beings who are vulgar persons and merchants or the multitude of laborers (1319a24). It is also important in every regime to have the laws and management of the rest arranged in such a way that it is impossible to profit from the offices.The many do not chafe as much at being kept away from ruling they are even glad if someone leaves them the leisure for their private affairs as they do when they suppose that their rulers are stealing common [funds]; then it pains them both not to share in the prerogatives and not to share in the profits (1308b32). It is not least because of his interest in revolutions and uprisings that his philosophy is so relevant for present day politics and policy-making. Aristotle describes each of these in more detail. The knifes purpose, or reason for existing, is to cut things. The Rule of Law - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy Therefore, the conflict that matters is the one between the rich and poor, and as we have seen, whichever group gets the upper hand will arrange things for its own benefit and in order to harm the other group. (Aristotle did write for general audiences on these subjects, probably in dialogue form, but only a few fragments of those writings remain). The person who has it neither flees from the enemy nor engages in a suicidal and pointless attack but faces the enemy bravely and attacks in the right way. Aristocracy - Wikipedia As we have seen,logos means not only speech but also reason. A useful introduction and very thorough notes, identifying names, places, and terms with which the reader may not be familiar. However, the main topics and problems of Aristotles work will be included. Note, again, the importance of letting the laws rule. Aristotle cites a number of historical examples of this. Oligarchies undergo revolution primarily when they treat the multitude unjustly. This is still another difference between Aristotle and contemporary Western societies. aristocracy, government by a relatively small privileged class or by a minority consisting of those presumed to be best qualified to rule. . Rearranging the text in this way would have the effect of joining the early discussion of the origins of political life and the city, and the nature of political justice, with the discussion of the ideal city and the education appropriate for it, while leaving together books 4-6 which are primarily concerned with existing varieties of regimes and how they are preserved and destroyed and moving them to the conclusion of the book. The most authoritative and highest good of all, for Aristotle, is the virtue and happiness of the citizens, and the purpose of the city is to make it possible for the citizens to achieve this virtue and happiness. The cause of this state is that they are serious about living, but not about living well; and since that desire of theirs is without limit, they also desire what is productive of unlimited things (1257b38). Unfortunately, these regimes have taught them the wrong things. Aristotle believes that a democracy is a corrupt form of government because it is built upon the belief of majority rule. So all the people living in the city who are not citizens are there for the benefit of the citizens. Revolution in oligarchical regimes can also come about from competition within the oligarchy, when not all of the oligarchs have a share in the offices. Remember that polity is one of the correct regimes, and it occurs when the many rule in the interest of the political community as a whole. Aristotles life was primarily that of a scholar. Aristotle also provides advice for those that want to preserve any of the existing kinds of regime, even the defective ones, showing a kind of hard-headed realism that is often overlooked in his writings. It is easy to believe that people in the modern world have put a great deal of moral distance between themselves and the less enlightened people in the past, but it is also easy to overestimate that distance). "In a democracy," the Greek historian . Aristotle advises minimizing the number of trials and length of service on juries so that the cost will not be too much of a burden on the wealthy where there are not sources of revenue from outside the city (Athens, for example, received revenue from nearby silver mines, worked by slaves). It may be clear from the context that a word has been changed, but then again it may not, and there is always hesitation in changing the text as we have it. In the case of the city it is the most authoritative or highest good. Instead it means being educated in the principles of moderate democracy and moderate oligarchy, so that the regime will be long-lasting and avoid revolution. Central Michigan University Their intellectual powers, which could be turned to wealth, are being used in other, better ways to develop their humanity. Political Science in General Supplement: Characteristics and Problems of Aristotle's Politics 2. It would weaken attachments to other people and to the common property of the city, and this would lead to each individual assuming that someone else would care for the children and property, with the end result being that no one would. He says atEthics 1103b25: The purpose of the present study [of morality] is not, as it is in other inquiries, the attainment of theoretical knowledge: we are not conducting this inquiry in order to know what virtue is, but in order to become good, else there would be no advantage in studying it.. Politics spans the Bekker sections 1252a to 1342b. Constitutional Rights Foundation As I have already noted at the beginning of this text, he says in theEthics at 1099b30: The end of politics is the best of ends; and the main concern of politics is to engender a certain character in the citizens and to make them good and disposed to perform noble actions. As has been mentioned, most people today would not see this as the main concern of politics, or even a legitimate concern. This is a reason why the authoritative offices can be in the hands of the wealthy, as long as the people retain control of auditing and adjudication: Those who govern themselves in this way must necessarily be finely governed. The ideal regime to be described in Book VII is the regime that we would pray for if the gods would grant us our wishes and we could create a city from scratch, having everything exactly the way we would want it. The definition of a point, or a line, or a plane, can be given precisely, and once this definition is known, it is fixed and unchanging for everyone. This may at first seem wise, since the unequal distribution of property in a political community is, Aristotle believes, one of the causes of injustice in the city and ultimately of civil war. Such cities do not last unless they constantly remain at war (which is not an end in itself; no one pursues war for its own sake). I have already noted the connection between ethics and politics in Aristotles thought. It is also ultimately self-destructive to try to put either kind of regime into practice: Yet to have everywhere an arrangement that is based simply on one or the other of these sorts of equality is a poor thing. They remained, and remain, so valuable in part because of the comprehensiveness of his efforts. This part of the discussion we will pass over. Since it is always the case that the poor are many while the wealthy are few, it looks like it is the number of the rulers rather than their wealth which distinguishes the two kinds of regimes (he elaborates on this in IV.4). For, as we assert, nature does nothing in vain, and man alone among the animals has speech. This is a problem because some people are led to pursue wealth without limit, and the choice of such a life, while superficially very attractive, does not lead to virtue and real happiness. There is another element to determining who the good citizen is, and it is one that we today would not support. And, since members of this class are similar and equal in wealth, they are likely to regard one another as similar and equal generally, and to be willing to rule and be ruled in turn, neither demanding to rule at all times as the wealthy do or trying to avoid ruling as the poor do from their lack of resources. Certainly almost everyone wants to see law-abiding citizens, but it is questionable that changing the citizens character or making them morally good is part of what government should do. Keep in mind that the practical sciences are not about knowledge for its own sake: unless we put this knowledge to use in order to improve the citizens and the city, the study engaged in by political science is pointless. Merely imitating an existing regime, no matter how excellent its reputation, is not sufficient. That Aristotle believes slavery to be just and good for both master and slave in some circumstances is undeniable. First, there is disagreement about whether the books of thePolitics are in the order that Aristotle intended. managing slaves], an overseer assumes this prerogative, while they themselves engage in politics or philosophy (1255b35). I will simply point out the vicious circle in which women were trapped in ancient Greece (and still are in many cultures). But Aristotle believes that you would also, as part of your description, have to say that it is made to cut things. Democracy. Aristotle uses the discussion of household management to make a distinction between expertise in managing a household and expertise in business. It is in this that a good constitution differs from a bad one. This is not a view that would be found in political science textbooks today, but for Aristotle it is the central concern of the study of politics: how can we discover and put into practice the political institutions that will develop virtue in the citizens to the greatest possible extent? U. S. A. [T]he city belongs among the things that exist by nature, andman is by nature a political animal (1252b30-1253a3). The other is that Aristotle is critical of the Spartans because of their belief that the most important virtue to develop and the one that the city must teach its citizens is the kind of virtue that allows them to make war successfully. Given that this is the case, a regime that allows people to do whatever they want is in fact flawed, for it is not guiding them in the direction of the good life. Labor is their proper use; Aristotle refers to slaves as living tools at I.4. This is an important question for Aristotle, and he chooses to answer this question in the context of Socrates imagined community inPlatos dialogueThe Republic. However, the definition of something like justice can only be known generally; there is no fixed and unchanging definition that will always be correct. For example, imagine someone writing the sentence Ronald Reagan was thelastcompetent president of the United States. It is copied by hand, and the person making the copy accidentally writes (or assumes that the author must have written) Ronald Reagan was theleastcompetent president of the United States. If the original is then destroyed, so that only the copy remains, future generations will read a sentence that means almost exactly the opposite of what the author intended. The concept that most clearly links the two is that which Aristotle calledtelos. This is another aspect of political science that is still practiced today, as Aristotle combines a theory about how regimes ought to be with his analysis of how regimes really are in practice in order to prescribe changes to those regimes that will bring them more closely in line with the ideal. Whether this makes Aristotles position on slavery more acceptable or less so is left to the reader to decide. That he believes that some people who are currently enslaved are not being held in slavery according to justice is also undeniable (this would apparently also mean that there are people who should be enslaved but currently are not). So whatever regime is in power should, to the extent possible, allow the laws to rule. And yet the one who first constituted [a city] is responsible for the greatest of goods [1253a29]. But war is not itself an end or a good thing; war is for the sake of peace, and the inability of the Spartans to live virtuously in times of peace has led to their downfall. Several suggested editions are listed at the end of this article. But this is not what Aristotle means by living well. [1] The term derives from the Greek: . They are necessary for the city to exist someone must build the houses, make the shoes, and so forth but in the ideal city they would play no part in political life because their necessary tasks prevent them from developing their minds and taking an active part in ruling the city. First of all, we want the city to be the right size. If nothing thwarts that purpose, the young horse will indeed become a fast runner.

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