Aristotle distinguishes between the classes in the state, and who is best fit to rule. He believes that a coalition of the rich and the poor in society would best understand the whole society, and would therefore be good to rule; that the poor should perform deliberative and judicial functions but not allowed to hold office. In terms of types of ‘polity’ this is a mixture of oligarchy and democracy. Aristotle believes that the best possible state, one in which virtue is best able to prevail is one in which some political functions are assigned to the many poor and lower classes, and other functions to the few rich and well born. This will produce a balance of the classes, and a fair representation in Government.
Aristotle also discusses other forms of Government. In book III he discusses Kingship as a form of Government, he concludes that it is not a good form of Government unless one citizen’s virtues are greater than the rest of the state’s combined. As this is very unlikely to be the case, he believes his polity is more appropriate. He describes his polity as a form of Government in which all citizens take turn to rule. There are many different sections to the Government, and as discussed above each class of the state has a role to play in each section. It is in this way that citizens from each class take turn to rule.
Aristotle’s polity incorporates both oligarchic and democratic features in the aim of uniting the rich and the poor. He makes the distinction that the difference between oligarchy and democracy is the difference between whether the rich and the poor rule, not whether the few or the many rule. Although it is almost certain that rich will be few and the poor will be many. He includes in the constitution factors such as an assembly open to all citizens, which is usually found in a democratic Government. There are also oligarchic features such as election to high office. This constitution works best for most states because the well educated are able to run the state from a governing position; but the interests of the poor are still taken into account because they have a share of the power. Without the poor having some sort of role in the Government the rich may become single minded, and rule in a manner that is best suited to only their needs and not the needs of the state as a whole. Other advantages to Polity is that it is quite a stable constitution, corruption in the form of tyranny is unlikely to occur because everyone has a share in power.
Aristotle believes that the good forms of Government are Polity, Aristocracy and Monarchy. He acknowledges that Monarchy and Aristocracy are better and more efficient forms of government than Polity, but he believes that Polity is best for most states because it is less like to be corrupted. He believes that the bad forms of government are Extreme democracy, Tyranny and Oligarchy. These forms of constitution are simply the corrupted forms of what he believes are the good constitutions.
In book III Aristotle argues a principle that is the corner stone of Liberal Democracy, that we ought, to the extent possible, allow the law to rule. What he mean by this is that people by allowing law to rule, people are leaving god and intellect to rule. If they are asking man to rule then they are opening up the possibility of corruption. Aristotle believes that Polity is the best constitution for achieving the common good; by the common good he means the well being of all citizens within the state, this does not mean all residents within the state. Other residents of the state, such as women, manual labourers and slaves are in the state for the good of the citizens and are not taken into consideration.
Aristotle does not claim that Polity is the ideal form of constitution, he believed it was best because by the citizens sharing the power, they were all represented in Government and this meant that there was less chance of corruption. Polity is a form of constitution that is realistically attainable by most states.
Bibliography
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Lockyer, A. (1988) ‘Aristotle: The Politics’, in M. Forsyth and M. Keens-Soper, eds. The Political Classics. Oxford: Oxford University Press
- W.F. Hardie Aristotle’s Ethical Theory (1968)
- The Internet Encyclopaedia of Philosophy. Aristotle: Politics http://www.iep.utm.edu/a/aris-pol.htm#SH9c
