Aristotle’s Quest for an Ideal Political System

Abstract

This article presents Aristotle’s opinions about the political system of ancient Greek city-states. Democracy is criticized by Aristotle as a degenerate system because it is based on the opinion that people who are equal in certain respects are thereby equal in all – which is not true. The Stagirite construes the principle of equality as a danger for citizens because it would mean that everyone is entitled to influence the state in an equal measure, regardless of their knowledge and skills. In a democratic system, decisions regarding the most important issues of the state are subject to the decision of the majority, who do not always have capabilities for a proper discernment of matters political. The best of systems is the politeia, combining two forms of government: democracy and aristocracy, which is put into practice upon the acceptance of the citizens.