Week 1 Blog: Comment on "Aristotle on Democracy"

The way Aristotle explains how humans "move" in the direction of "good" helped to make it clear that the eventual formation of a state is the natural progression for humans. Starting with the family, humans can fulfill their everyday needs. The village is a way for humans to become self-sufficing. And ultimately, the state was a way for humans to seek a better life. It seems appropriate the he would start the topic of "democracy" off with an analysis of why states came to form.

As Aristotle goes on to explain why Democracy is the best form of government, he proposes that the middle-class should be the ruling class. According to him, putting the middle-class at the "fulcrum" of government keeps the "scale" of democracy balanced. Since most people are in the middle-class they represent the "mean" of the population, and to be cliche--majority rules! The downside to having a ruling upper-class lies in that they don't live in "reality," that is they were raised in a privileged world and don't know "real" problems. The poor are, according to Aristotle, envious and thus shouldn't rule. I think he put it best by saying that a ruling middle-class keeps either extreme from becoming dominant.