Aristotle distinguished among three potentially good types of government — a kingdom, an aristocracy, and a free state. These degenerate, however, and a tyranny emerges from monarchy, oligarchy (by which Aristotle means rule by the wealthy) from an aristocracy (by which he means rule by the noble and virtuous), and democracy from a free state.
Now the corruptions attending each of these governments are these; a kingdom may degenerate into a tyranny, an aristocracy into an oligarchy, and a state into a democracy. Now a tyranny is a monarchy where the good of one man only is the object of government, an oligarchy considers only the rich, and a democracy only the poor…
Read the article here.
0 Responses to “An Influential Philosopher Who Frowned on Democracy”