The treatise "Politics" by Aristotle

The Aristotle "Politics" treatise is the first significant monument of European political science. He also contributed to the christening of the contemporary concept of politics, although the original meaning of the word is not relevant (the town of Politka, a polis-related matter). "Politics" is a realistic model of the problems in society, the ideal state, statehood, public and state structure in ancient Greece, a model revealed in the eyes of the "most universal mind" of antiquity-Aristotle. The first book "Essential Elements of the State" includes 13 chapters, which clearly describe the emergence of the state, the types of power, the art of acquisition, slavery. Aristotle identifies as the initial linking of the woman and the man for the continuation of the family and of the governor and the subordinate for their preservation. It follows from this that the first community is the family, after which the unification of several families arises from the village, and the emerged from several villages, the completed community is the state. The state has reached full self-sufficiency and exists for the provision of a good life and the preservation of life in general. There are three authorities in the family - lord, marriage, and father. The power of the Lord is power over slaves. The slave is an animated property, an assistant through its body in the life activity, having as much intelligence as to understand the commandments, but not to possess it. That is why natural slavery is useful and just. The rule of law (the defeated in war becomes the slave of the victor) is unjust because it can become a slave and some noble Greek. The art of acquiring is enough for the domestic economy. People live by cattle breeding, hunting, fishing, farming or mixing these ways. When the community gets bigger, the exchange of goods appears, but only for their own needs. After the foreign aid in the import and export of goods has increased, the coin was invented, and the art of making money was developed with it. This art has no limits; it is done through trade and usury, and it is strongly condemned. Aristotle believes that women, children and slaves have virtues, but only as long as they need to do their job. That is why they have to be educated and taught. Only the ruler has all the moral virtue. It has to be different in appearance (but not by gender) and to receive honors.

image source

In the third chapter "General Study of State Devices", citizenship, the state and some types of state devices were examined. Aristotle makes one of the first attempts to define the notion of citizen: 1) the one who has the right to participate in the court and the national assembly; and 2) the person entitled to participate in the council (boule) and in the work of the courts. A citizen is a person with two parents of citizens, and one who has become one as a result of a change in the state apparatus. There were different conditions of nationality for different state devices (depending on whether there was a shortage of citizens). The goodman's goodness (rationality, restraint, courage, justice ...) and the virtue of a good citizen (to be able to manage and obey) are different and not everyone has both. They only coincide with the ruler. According to whether the governors care for their own benefit or for those of the ruled, there are two types of state devices: correct (royal power, aristocracy, politics) and irregular (tyranny, oligarchy, democracy). Nobility, freedom, and wealth are important for governance. That is why they have to manage those who outgrow the others in something. But whether it is a man, a minority of nobles, or a multitude, people must be governed by proper laws (because people are subject to feelings and affects, and the law is not "balanced mind"). Aristotle divides the royal power into several types: the heroic age, the barbarians, the power of the essences, Spartan royal power, and absolute kingdom. The last two are important, others are between them. The king must have an armed force to defend the laws. But it is still better to manage more people because the higher-headers think better than one.

The fourth book, "Types of State Device", deals with the types of state devices and their parts. The statesman must know them because the laws are determined by the device, not the back. Aristotle considers the tyranny, the oligarchy and the most tolerable democracy, the worst management. The best rule according to the philosopher is politics. State devices and their species are as many as the combinations of the parts of the state (family, armed and unarmed, farmers, merchants, theses, various kinds, virtue, wealth). Democracy is: 1) based on equality, 2) officials are defined by a low property level, 3) are governed by citizens of impeccable origin according to the law, 4) they govern all citizens according to the law, 5) governs the majority, not the law. According to Aristotle, the types of oligarchy are: 1) the officials are determined by a high level of property, 2) the already appointed officials choose the ones who are not at the same time. 3) the son inherits the father's position, 4) the rule of the dynasty, not the law.Vidos of the aristocracy are the following: 1) the ideal-composed by the unconditionally the best men of virtue 2) the ruling ones are determined by wealth, virtue, freedom, 3) forms of politics, tangled to the oligarchy. The merit of the aristocracy is virtue, of the rich-richness, and of democracy-freedom. Politics is a mixture of rich and poor, of the positive features of oligarchy and democracy, a "middle form" of government. It is governance over all for its own benefit, without a statement of authority. The more mixed a device and the more average citizens, the more sustainable it is. The State Department has three parts: 1) a leading party - dealing with civil matters such as war, peace, penalties, laws, confiscation, separation of these issues between all or only individual citizens, depending on the device, 2) positions, decision-making, political, economic, and assisting, in the big states one official is in charge of one task, and in the small-to-many, many managerial positions are assembled, 3) justice - there are eight types of courts, their rights are determined by government.

The sixth book describes how to dwell and how to preserve democracy and oligarchy. Characteristic features of democracy are: freedom, election of officials from amongst all by lot, alternate management, but for a short time, the power of the National Assembly over all issues; institutions - over as little as possible, income from positions, etc. To preserve democracy, the confiscated property must become the property of the cult, the income of the state to be collected and eventually to be distributed among the people, in the absence of revenue the National Assembly hearings are rare. Every kind of oligarchy favors the opposite kind of democracy. In order to preserve the oligarchy in the infantry, only the sons of the rich should be admitted, the higher ones must be connected with public servants. In order to achieve a fair solution, the rich and the multitude are in a different opinion , what is decided by this group, whose general property value is higher, is the same. The direct positions are different for different spheres of public life, the most important being the constitutional supervisor, the preliminary commission and the council. Through his extraordinary talent, his mind and his empirical experience, Aristotle puts the foundations of the theory of the constitutional state and of contemporary politics in Politics. Thus his thought goes beyond the experience of his time. Where others see chaos, Aristotle opens a principle. It is these principles that will help us understand modern political life, build the alternative to modern civil society to the state.