Democracy means popular seizure of power by the poor and the oppression of the rich. Classical political philosophy and modern democracy. Aristotle means the arrangement of the most authoritative offices in the city 1278b810. For aristotle, a good governmentvirtuous government is one that is ruled aristocratically. Oct 05, 2009 another reason that a democracy is not a virtuous form of government is rooted in a democracys concept of equality. Mulgan, aristotles political theory oxford, 1977, 19872, chs. He was an advocate of a moderate form of democracy. However, he warns against two excesses of democracy in particular.
In aristotle s politics, he focuses much on the regimes of an oligarchy and of a democracy. For aristotle, the polity, the ideal democracy, met this criteria it allowed for the development of virtues that support the common interest, and limited the emphasis on wealth, allowing for the development of a desirable middle class. Essay on plato and aristotle on democracy 2197 words. For aristotle, democracy rests on the government of each by all and all for each in turn. Note, however, that his use of the term science carries a different meaning than. Among the citys many exemplary qualities, he declared, was its constitution, which favors the many instead of the few. By doing so, the king acknowledged he was bound by law, like others, and granted his subjects legal rights. What governs the connections between all of these concepts is the status accorded by plato and aristotle to the notions of unity and plurality. The uncertainty of outcomes is inherent in democracy. This vital concept, through its transcultural dimension and because it touches the very fundamentals of the life of human beings in society, has given rise to. Democracy in the politics of aristotle the stoa consortium. Demos means the common people and kratos means rule. Along with his teacher plato, aristotle is generally regarded as one of the most influential ancient thinkers in a number of philosophical fields, including political theory.
Wherever men rule by reason of their wealth, whether they be few or many, that is an oligarchy, and where the poor rule, that is a democracy. The democracy that i favor is one that gives everyone the same chance of success, depending on the capacity of each. The gift of democracy should not be taken for granted nor should. This formation of athenian democracy holds the main principle that citizens should enjoy political equality in order to be free to rule and be ruled in turn. Aristotles classification of constitutions sar publisher. Today we would say that the minimum requirement for citizenship is the power of voting for the representatives of the people who do the actual ruling in a democracy.
Plato was a teacher to aristotle and lived during the peloponnesian war, which lead to the end of the athenian democracy. As is also true of oligarchy and monarchy, rule in a democracy is for and by the people named in the government type. As explained above, any attempt to define it otherwise is a matter of convenience and may have its roots in the difference between what democracy essentially is and how it is practiced. The greek philosopher aristotle believed that questions of the state, how it. In 1215, english nobles pressured king john of england to sign a document known as the magna carta, a key step on the road to constitutional democracy. Pdf aristotles relevance to modern democratic theory. An aristotelian middle way for collective judgment josiah ober stanford university a satisfactory model of decisionmaking in an epistemic democracy must respect democratic values, while advancing citizens interests, by taking account of relevant knowledge about the world. Nov 14, 20 in aristotle s politics, he focuses much on the regimes of an oligarchy and of a democracy.
Democracy outlined by plato and aristotle essay 914 words. He pointed out that aristotle knew only citystates and they were not like the countrystates of modern times. Yes, i think aristotle was against democracy the way he defined it. He explains the main objections to democracy, including the challenges of majority tyranny, irrational decisionmaking procedures and ineffectual government. From aristotle down to the present, men have argued that only in a wealthy society in which relatively few citizens lived in real poverty could a. The concept of regime is central to aristotles political science.
He had eyewitness account of socrates, his mentor, trial and execution. Pdf comparison of platos political philosophy with. Both plato and aristotle discussed democracy in terms of the six categories framework. It is important to note that aristotle did not consider oligarchies and democracies as inherently bad. The word democracy is one of the most used terms of the political vocabulary. He was a great philosopher and attended platos academy in athens. Aristotle article about aristotle by the free dictionary. Plato and aristotle on democracy essay examples 2188 words. For aristotle, a democracy is the rule of the poor and the rule of the majority. Cunningham distinguishes between several competing theories of democracy. Aristotles athenaion politeia as political theory in. What are the different types and forms of democracy.
However, in a democracy as aristotle defines it, ruling is done on the basis of numerical equality. Aristotle states that the underlying principle of all democracy is liberty, but the concept of liberty can be interpreted in two different ways. This article seeks to define an appropriate role for expert knowledge in a robust democracy in which leg islative authority is retained by citizens. We must therefore look at the elements of which the state is composed, in order that we may see in what the different kinds of rule differ from one another, and whether any scientific result can be attained about each one of them. When making his decision on virtuous or nonvirtuous, aristotle says that a rule of the majority must be nonvirtuous in practice because it is too difficult to find a majority who can be virtuous. This implies the sovereignty of the majority and the equality of all before the law. And so we see that there is a natural art of acquisition which is practiced by managers of households and by states men, and what is the reason of this. For the real difference between democracy and oligarchy is poverty and wealth. Aristotle defends a scheme open to free citizens which of course excludes slaves and barbarians in which he is both a condition and purpose of democracy. His traveling and life experiences may have contributed to his curiosity for democracy. Democracies exists when the free and poor, being a majority, have authority to rule, and have an equal share in the city. In essence, he argues that this is what every democracy should make its aim.
Democracy outlined by plato and aristotle essay 914 words 4 pages. Aristotle on the good life december 19, 20 aristotle, happiness john messerly aristotle 384 bc 322 bc was a greek philosopher, a student of plato, and teacher of alexander the great. Portland state university pdxscholar university honors theses university honors college 52420 classical political philosophy and modern democracy. The promise of happiness through virtue made possible by the state aristotle, the western worlds first and perhaps greatest systematic thinker, emerged out of what historian thomas cahill refers to as the most wildly participatory democracy in history sailing the winedark sea.
Aristotles political theory stanford encyclopedia of. A democracy is simply a system of government where the citizens directly exercise their power, and have the right to elect government representatives who collectively create a government body for the entire nation like, a parliament. Sep 16, 2016 what are the different types of democracy. He had many interests, and many think that the myriad of his interests shaped his political views. In aristotles politics, he focuses much on the regimes of an oligarchy and of a democracy. Aristotle, one of the greatest philosophers of all time, a teacher of world leader alexander the great, and a prolific writer on a variety of subjects we might not think related to philosophy, provides important information on ancient politics. He died in chalcis on the island of euboea, where he had fled from persecution arising from accusations of a crime against religion. Thus, democracy essentially means the rule of the common people. Politeia is an ancient greek word used in greek political thought, especially that of plato and aristotle. A common view since lipsets 1959 research is that prosperity stimulates democracy. That political representation was historically associated with ancient.
Aristotle gave a wrong meaning to the term democracy. This involves the heavy taxation and exploitation of the rich, among other things. The state is defined by aristotle as a body of citizens sufficing for the purposes of life. Under one interpretation, liberty means an even interchange between ruling and being ruled by all freeborn citizens. Others, however, declare the ephoralty to be a tyranny, and find the element of democracy in the common meals and in the habits of daily life. Aristotle makes philosophy in the broad sense coextensive with reasoning, which he also would describe as science. Aristotle is considered one of the most influential thinkers of all time.
For aristotle, democracy is not the best form of government. Direct democracy, representative democracy, presidential democracy, parliamentary democracy, authoritarian democracy, participatory democracy, islamic democracy and social democracy. The one that i reject is that which claims to provide the number the authority which belongs to merit. While the real, philosophical, ideal or essential meaning of democracy remains the same, the actual practice of democracy may be said to be in the eye of the beholder. By the time of plato and aristotle, a number of new regimeterms had been. The works of aristotle that have come down to us may be divided into seven groups according to their contents. Democracy aristotle disparages democracy, literally the rule of the people, as a type of government in which the poor masses have control and use it to serve their own ends. Democracy is a system of processing conflicts in which outcomes depend on what participants do, but no single force controls what occurs and its outcomes. Hence, the final section of the paper will consider to what extent the idea of democracy rests on specific notions of identity and difference. Sir john seely criticized it on the ground that it was not applicable to the modern governments. For aristotle, the underlying principle of democracy is freedom, since only in a democracy can the citizens have a share in freedom. Aristotles work encompassed virtually all facets of intellectual inquiry.
This short paper examines martha nussbaums aristotelian social democracy, and in particular her appropriation of aristotle s political philosophy. That the original meaning of democracy is capacity to do things not. Democracy outlined by plato and aristotle essay 914 words 4 pages in the fifthcentury bc, athens emerged as one of the most advanced state or polis in all of greece. The whole system of government tends to be neither democracy nor oligarchy, but something in a mean between them, which is usually called a polity, and is. What aristotle means by his definition of a constitution is that the arrangement of offices, and especially of the highest offices, determines the form of the constitution governing the state, and also determines the form of government. In a funeral oration in 430 bce for those who had fallen in the peloponnesian war, the athenian leader pericles described democratic athens as the school of hellas. For aristotle, democracies as he defined them were very polarized societies. Aristotle on legality and corruption 29 plato, in the republic, describes the contrast between the ideal and inferior states in terms of an imagined decay or destruction, using the word pthora 546a, the greek term later regularly latinised as corruptio.