Aristotle and Plato

Political society today, has taken many lessons from Plato and Aristotle’s political ideas. As was the case in Ancient Greece, there are many different political ideologies and regimes that will may serve the purpose for one society, but in another, could cause utter chaos. Aristotle attributed the need for there being a number of political regimes due to the fact that there are “many parts to a city.” (4.3.1) The many parts to a city that he was referring to, simply enforces the necessity of having different forms of office for each of these parts. Not every method will work for each society. Aristotle’s concepts of political regimes have deeply rooted itself in society today. In order to understand the concepts of regime as suggested by Aristotle, this paper will consider the three different types; royalty, aristocracy, and constitutional government, as well as each of their deviations.

In Ancient Greece, political regimes had been divided by the amount of magistrates there were present in each office. Whether it was a governing body of one, a few, or many, the end result was still to aim for the common good of the people, for each working part of the city. Aristotle claims that a regime lead by royalty is the most desirable of the three. The general, most absolute goal that a royalty regime would attempt was simply a government of one, that was for the common good (Stanford). The royalty regime is virtually exactly as it sounds. Aristotle suggests that the regime was generally lead by a leader that had been selected or born into it, for life. For instance, the Lacedaemonians, supported this regime as a more of a generalship. The leader had either been elected, or it was passed on to him through generation after...

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...e. The concept of wealthy rulers governing over a city of the less fortunate, provides the most even rule for its subjects.

Finally, the third deviation is a democratic system. Based on the foundation of oligarchy, it is a regime that evolved from the lack of equality that was missing in an oligarchy. The two main principles of any democratic system is basic equality and freedom. A democracy is composed of many egalitarian men. The foundation of equality, while lacking the virtue of the other regimes, is what maintains the balance in a democracy. The government is generally composed of many men who share the government while mainting the sovereignty in law. The democracy provides a society where a social class does not dominiate all. Instead it is the majority of the people who the government rules for, allowing each to have an opportunity and say.