how did aristotle define democracy rule of the

On the other hand, [O]ne should not consider as characteristic of popular rule or of oligarchy something tha t will make the city democratically or oligarchically run to the greatest extent possible, but something that will do so for the longest period of time (1320a1). The former, Aristotle says, is important both for the household and the city; we must have supplies available of the things that are necessary for life, such as food, clothing, and so forth, and because the household is natural so too is the science of household management, the job of which is to maintain the household. Just like everything else that is alive, human beings have atelos. Political Science in General Supplement: Characteristics and Problems of Aristotle's Politics 2. Suppose you were to describe an animal, like a thoroughbred foal. For a monarchy to last, for example, the people must believe in the rightness of monarchical rule and the principles which justify it. Their work is equal, and so the reward should be too. For example, a democracy that is based on the farming element will be different than a democracy that is based on the element that is engaged in commerce, and similarly there are different kinds of oligarchies. It is not made once and for all, but must be made over and over again as we live our lives. But this situation is extremely unlikely (1287b40). In the course of discussing the various ways of life open to human beings, Aristotle notes that If, then, nature makes nothing that is incomplete or purposeless, nature must necessarily have made all of these [i.e. They assume that the bigger the city is, the better it will be. Because they do not have the necessary things, they spend their time at work and do not desire the things of others; indeed, working is more pleasant to them than engaging in politics and ruling, where there are not great spoils to be gotten from office (1318b9). This belief means that women are denied access to certain areas of life (such as politics). This, for most contemporary readers is one of the two most offensive portions of Aristotles moral and political thought (the other is his treatment of women, about which more will be said below). Productive knowledge means, roughly, know-how; the knowledge of how to make a table or a house or a pair of shoes or how to write a tragedy would be examples of this kind of knowledge. Human beings, for better or worse, cannot do this. First, everyone is equal by law regardless of wealth and majority rules. For tyranny arises from the most headstrong sort of democracy and from oligarchy, but much less often from the middling sorts [of regime] and those close to them (1295b39). Learning the subjects that fall under the heading of productive knowledge, such as how to make shoes, would be degrading to the citizen. But there is another group that is incapable of citizenship leading to virtue, and Aristotle calls this group the vulgar. The correct regime of polity, highlighted in Book IV, is under political rule, while deviant regimes are those which are ruled as though a master was ruling over slaves. No matter who the majority is, be it the impoverished or the wealthy, they look out for their own interests and ignore the interests of the minorities. (In this Aristotle is in agreement with the common opinion of Athenian aristocrats). 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. The translation used in preparing this entry. Human beings alone have the ability to speak, and Aristotle says that we have been given that ability by nature so that we can speak and reason with each other to discover what is right and wrong, what is good and bad, and what is just and unjust. Fortunately, the beginning student of Aristotle will not need to concern themselves much with these problems. While the virtuous also have a claim to rule, the very fact that they are virtuous leads them to avoid factional conflict. This is a question that seems strange, or at least irrelevant, to most people today. This is what is called the city or the political partnership (1252a3) (See also III.12). All cities have these two groups, the many poor and the few wealthy, and Aristotle was well aware that it was the conflict between these two groups that caused political instability in the cities, even leading to civil wars (Thucydides describes this in hisHistory of the Peloponnesian War, and theConstitution of Athens also discusses the consequences of this conflict). The community brings about virtue through education and through laws which prescribe certain actions and prohibit others. The most pervasive of these is that oligarchs and democrats each advance a claim to political power based on justice. It is important to remember that the city was not subordinate to a state or nation, the way that cities are today; it was sovereign over the territory that it controlled. Some of this discussion has to do with the various ways in which the offices, laws, and duties can be arranged. This is not to excuse Aristotle or those of his time who supported slavery, but it should be kept in mind so as to give Aristotle a fair hearing. First of all, we want the city to be the right size. Without the city and its justice, human beings are the worst of animals, just as we are the best when we are completed by the right kind of life in the city. But this, according to Aristotle, is too much sharing. Of course, they do not need this ability. How we might tell which people belong in which group, and what Aristotle believes the consequences of his beliefs about slavery ought to be, are more difficult problems. And in discovering and living according to the right laws, acting with justice and exercising the virtues that allow human society to function, we make possible not only the success of the political community but also the flourishing of our own individual virtue and happiness. Other people can become citizens by following the correct legal procedures for doing so. How Did Aristotle Define Democracy. 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. In addition, democracy is closer to polity than oligarchy is, and this contributes to its greater stability. The reason is that the legislator has not educated them to be capable of being at leisure (1334a6). A monarch in Aristotles sense is one who rules because he is superior to all other citizens in virtue. And this is an ongoing decision. He compares the individuals relationship with the city to the relationship of a part of the body to the whole body. Merely imitating an existing regime, no matter how excellent its reputation, is not sufficient. Just as an acorn can only fulfill itstelos if there is sufficient light, the right kind of soil, and enough water (among other things), and a horse can only fulfill itstelos if there is sufficient food and room to run (again, among other things), an individual can only fulfill theirtelos and be a moral and happy human being within a well constructed political community. After all, people find happiness in many different ways. Of course, so can the rule of a king or a tyrant. It covers all of Aristotles work, with chapters on Logic, Philosophy of Nature, Biology, Psychology, Metaphysics, Ethics, Politics, and Rhetoric and Poetics. To see why, we must consider how the city comes into being, and it is to this that Aristotle next turns in Book I, Chapter 2. His father was court physician to Amyntas III of Macedon, so Aristotle grew up in a royal household. Aristotle believes that women and slaves (or at least those who are slaves by nature) can never benefit from the study of politics, and also should not be allowed to participate in politics, about which more will be said later. Almost immediately after this typology is created, Aristotle clarifies it: the real distinction between oligarchy and democracy is in fact the distinction between whether the wealthy or the poor rule (1279b39), not whether the many or the few rule. You should also keep in mind that by the common good Aristotle means the common good of the citizens, and not necessarily all the residents of the city. describes the happy life intended for man by nature as one lived in accordance with virtue, and, in his Politics, he describes the role that politics and the political community must play in bringing about the virtuous life in the citizenry. Good citizens must have the type of virtue that preserves the partnership and the regime: [A]lthough citizens are dissimilar, preservation of the partnership is their task, and the regime is [this] partnership; hence the virtue of the citizen must necessarily be with a view to the regime. The greatness of Athenian plays, architecture, sculpture, and philosophy could not have been achieved without the institution of slavery. A very thorough introduction and commentary are included with this translation of the. They were liable to prosecution if they were found to have engaged in wrongdoing or mismanagement, and the fear of this prosecution, Aristotle says, will keep them honest and ensure that they act according to the wishes of the democracy. For those of us not living in the ideal regime, the ideal citizen is one who follows the laws and supports the principles of the regime, whatever that regime is. We see again the importance of maintaining a regime which all of the groups in the city wish to see continue. And yet the one who first constituted [a city] is responsible for the greatest of goods [1253a29]. And this citizen is a citizen above all in a democracy; he may, but will not necessarily, be a citizen in the others (1275b4). Someone who places primary importance on money and the bodily satisfactions that it can buy is not engaged in developing their virtue and has chosen a life which, however it may seem from the outside or to the person living it, is not a life of true happiness. He says: The lesser engage in factional conflict in order to be equal; those who are equal, in order to be greater (1302a29). Athenian citizenship was limited to adult males who were not slaves and who had one parent who was an Athenian citizen (sometimes citizenship was further restricted to require both parents to be Athenian citizens). 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. Even in the ideal city, constructed to meet the conditions for which we would pray, the need for certain tasks, such as farming and laboring, will remain. 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. Book I Overview Structure Aristotle's Politics is divided into eight books, which are each further divided into chapters. We have not yet seen what political rule looks like, but here Aristotle notes several of its important features, one of which is that it usually involves alternation in ruling and being ruled (1259b2), and another is that it involves rule among those who tend by their nature to be on an equal footing and to differ in nothing (1259b5). He repeats this in Book V, calling it the great principle: keep watch to ensure that that the multitude wanting the regime is superior to that not wanting it (1309b16), and in Book VI he discusses how this can be arranged procedurally (VI.3). For Aristotle, however, expertise in business is not natural, but arises rather through a certain experience and art (1257a5). For a further discussion of Aristotles methodology, see his discussion of reasoning in general and dialectical reasoning in particular in theTopics. Second, there is a modest minimum property qualification to hold public office. Their intellectual powers, which could be turned to wealth, are being used in other, better ways to develop their humanity. For a modern example, many people who would not throw trash on their own front yard or damage their own furniture will litter in a public park and destroy the furniture in a rented apartment or dorm room. According to Aristotle, everything has a purpose or final end. The reference above to Nicomachean Ethics at 1099b30 makes use of what is called Bekker pagination. They must take turns, ruling and being ruled in turn. 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. 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). [T]hose regimes which look to the common advantage are correct regimes according to what is unqualifiedly just, while those which look only to the advantage of the rulers are errant, and are all deviations from the correct regimes; for they involve mastery, but the city is a partnership of free persons (1279a16).
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