Aristotle disparages democracy, literally as the rule of the people- “Democrats hold that if men are equal by birth, they should have an equal share in office…” (p.102)-as well as, a type of government in which the poor masses have control and use it to serve their own ends. Among forms of majority rule such as democracy, Aristotle prefers the political system that is a constitutional government. Throughout the end of Book III of Aristotle’s Politics, democracy is discussed at length as a preferred form of government as per Aristotle. This essay aims to show and analyse the logic of Aristotle’s arguments for democracy, and thereafter, I will proceed to critically present a reasoned argument as to why I find the discussed arguments compelling.
For Aristotle, there is more to citizenship than living in a particular place or sharing in social or economic activity or being ruled under the same laws- citizenship for Aristotle is a kind of activity: "The citizen in this strict sense is best defined by the one criterion that he shares in the administration of justice and in the …show more content…
Citizenship is shown as not just a set of privileges, it is also a set of duties. According to him, all people are born of a nature that leads them either to lead or to follow- in his demonstration of all this, Aristotle does a good job of defining the universal definition of democracy many nations have still not achieved practically to this day. His arguments conceptualise and analyse democracy in a non- reductionist manner and consequently allows for one to deliberate and infer as to which style of governance is preferable without explicitly stating that democracy is superior and
For Aristotle, there is more to citizenship than living in a particular place or sharing in social or economic activity or being ruled under the same laws- citizenship for Aristotle is a kind of activity: "The citizen in this strict sense is best defined by the one criterion that he shares in the administration of justice and in the …show more content…
Citizenship is shown as not just a set of privileges, it is also a set of duties. According to him, all people are born of a nature that leads them either to lead or to follow- in his demonstration of all this, Aristotle does a good job of defining the universal definition of democracy many nations have still not achieved practically to this day. His arguments conceptualise and analyse democracy in a non- reductionist manner and consequently allows for one to deliberate and infer as to which style of governance is preferable without explicitly stating that democracy is superior and