The Politics By Aristotle Essays - Forms Of Government, Politics

The Politics By Aristotle In the book The Politics, Aristotle analyzes different types of political communities. He examines these political communities on two different levels; first as a city and then as a regime. By studying both city and regime you get the full picture of the different types of governments throughout the world. Aristotle uses this dual approach to describe the different types of regimes. Through his evaluation of the city and regime, Aristotle comes to the conclusion that oligarchies, which are governments that are ruled by the few, are deviant regimes because they govern for the good of the rulers, and not for the good of the whole. The city is the first level that Aristotle uses to evaluate different types of political communities. A complete city ?is the multitude of such persons that is adequate with a view to a self-sufficient life? (Aristotle pg. 87). Villages are collaboration of many households that have come together so they can obtain non-daily needs. Since villages are not self-sufficient, they join together to form cities. Cities provide you with the things your household and your village are not able to provide to you. Therefore, the city is the only thing that can exists self-sufficiently, and it exists for the sake of living well. The city is also the most authoritative partnership. The city embraces all other partnerships and therefore, it aims at the most authoritative good of all, which is living well. Aristotle uses ?city? to generally describe political communities. The city only describes the people who inhabit it; it does not distinguish who the rulers are or what kind of rule the city has. The citizens are an important aspect of political communities because knowing the citizens allows you to investigate what type of regime that particular city has or should have. To find out who rules the city you have to study the city's regime. Regimes are the second level of analyses Aristotle uses to describe political communities. A ?regime is an arrangement of a city with respect to its offices, particularly the one that has authority over all matters. For what has authority in the city is the governing body, and the governing body is the regime (Aristotle pg. 94).? A regime is a ?part? of the ?whole? that deals with decision-making. When analyzing a regime, you are determining who is ruling the city and what kind of rule the city has. Examining regimes is the specific way to evaluate political communities; it is the way to tell one political community apart from another. According to Aristotle, there are both correct and deviant regimes. Regimes that aim at the common advantage of the whole city are correct regimes because the regimes are just with moral laws. They allow their inhabitants to be citizens and participate in government on the basis of virtue instead of wealth, birth or beauty. Regimes that aim at a private advantage are deviant regimes because they are excluding part of the ?whole.? An oligarchy is a type of political community in which the rich, who are the few, have the power to rule. The affluent believe they deserve to have total power, because they contribute more to the city from their extensive wealth. Therefore, the wealthy believe they should have greater voice in the city, because they have more invested into it. To analyze an oligarchy you first need to look at it in general terms, meaning you need to observe the city and its individual citizens. The city is composed mainly of poor people, and they receive very little power or opportunities for political involvement. Whereas, the wealthy believe they should have more representation in the city because they own more of the land even if their representation is basis or corrupt. The regime in an oligarchy is a small part of the whole city. For example, the rich only consist of a small fraction of the whole city. The governing element is based upon inequality of authority. The wealthy do not believe that it is fair to give everyone the same amount of authority, because authority should be proportional to the amount of financial support that you give to the city. The affluent do not realize