The Influence Of Aristotle, Aristocracy, Oligarchy And Democracy

Ancient Greek philosopher, Aristotle, is considered one of the most prominent philosophers of all times. His works have played a profound role in shaping political thoughts especially in the middle late ages, which explicitly considered it to be Aristotelian. Aristotle was a student of Plato, enrolled in Plato’s academy, and nevertheless he was the greatest critic of his teacher. His findings have ranged from science, philosophy to politics. Aristotle believed in essence of things, that is, he believed everything as an inherent core purpose that is called telos. He also believed that forming a community and human association is highly vital because people are social beings who can only achieve true contentment only by living in a political …show more content…
He proposes that there are six types of governments. He categorizes this government into being “good” and “bad”. The three good governments, according to Aristotle, are aristocracy, polity and monarchy. Aristocracy is the rule by the virtuous few, monarchy is rule by one great leader whose best interest is the good for the community and polity is the rule and polity is the rule by the middle constitutions that involves ruling by a large number of individuals who are both rich and poor. On the other hand, the bad form of government is Tyranny, Oligarchy and Democracy. Tyranny is rule by one leader who submits to his selfish needs and is inconsiderate of the common good. Oligarchy is when the wealthy few rule who serve their best interest, disregarding the interests of the rest. The last form of government is democracy, which is the rule by many people, mainly poor, that addresses their own selfish needs by exploiting the …show more content…
However, Aristotle believes that women and slaves are meant to be ruled. Plato promoted a government system, which was focused towards the common good. For Plato, he does not single out one form of government as he believes that eventually all government will come to a state of decline. However, aristocracy at its initial state is the type of government Plato advocates for as the virtuous men rule it. While Plato form a class based system, Aristotle on the contrary believes in middle constitution where the rich and poor all come together to rule the state for the benefit of all. He believes in “The Golden Mean”, which takes maintains the middle ground between two extreme government systems of Oligarchy and Democracy. This maintains the elements of both oligarchy and democracy, which will lead to a progressive ruling in the polis. He also believes that rule by the Guardians or the elite few are extremely dangerous. However, as focused, as Plato is to create a perfect society, Aristotle is more concerned in improving the existing society. Plato has divided the people of the polis into three classes. Guardian classes are the rulers and Plato believes that they should not own private property because this can tamper with their commitment to the common good. They should only think about the good of the city and are not able to make their marital choices as well. Plato promoted a government