After the reading on session 6, a noteworthy question to be
raised is “Why did Aristotle reject a democratic form of government?”
As far as I understand, Aristotle believed that the best form
of a political system was a system in which less people or one person was in
grasp of the primary sources of power. As we’ve discussed, Power has primary
held a negative connotation with its definition. The people who hold power
almost always manage to misuse it. So based on this Aristotle may have argued
that it could be said: the more power distributed among the many people of a
political system, the rising inclination of those people to be using power for
self interested reasons rather than for the public good. Conversely the limited
distribution of power among the political leaders ensures that the misuse of
power is limited. Aristotle believed that dividing power among political
leaders as in a democracy would lead to mob rule.
I believe that it doesn’t matter what form of government, in
terms of its number of rulers, each form is capable of equal degrees of good
and bad. Whether power is distributed among the many or given to just a few, it
all boils down to the intentions of the ruler: may they be self serving or for
the public good.
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