Aristotle's on Democracy - Essay Example

2001). He regarded democracy to be the deteriorated counterpart to polity. In the Politics, he describes aristocracy as rule by the best. In application, this normally meant rule by the well-born, those of noble family who called themselves "the best people". Aristotle employs "polity" both in that manner, as the general term for a constitution of any kind, and as the name of one of this kind. The concept of polity (politeia, constitution) is that all citizens should have short turns at ruling.

Because it is an inclusive type of government, everyone has a share of political power. On the other hand, oligarchy or the general term for rule by a few is the corrupt kind which aims to advance the interest of the wealthy few. Finally, democracy, which means literally rule by the people, was used by Aristotle to mean rule exclusively by the poor in their own interest. It is important to note that Aristotle distinguishes between democracy and politeia based on the fact that democracy seeks the interests of only the ruling faction, while politeia seeks the interests of all.

According to Aristotle in Book VI of his Politics, the critical principle of democracy is freedom, one feature of which is having a share in ruling. He declares that justice is equality based on number rather than merit, and as a result the multitude has authority, meaning that the poor have more authority than the wealthy. A second feature of freedom is to be able to live as one wants. Thus, democratic people do not want to be ruled at all, although if it is necessary to have rulers then the next best choice is to rule and be ruled in turn (trans. 2001). To Aristotle and the Greeks during his time, democracy was defined as a government of, by and for the people.

Originally, democracy was understood to mean rule by the common people. In this view, it was very much a class matter, even before the beginning of modern class society. It meant that power should be held by the biggest class,