How Does Aristotle's View Of Government

Early Greek Philosophers contributed many of their ideas to what an ideal government should look like. Plato’s Republic, Polybius’s comments on the Roman Constitution, and Aristotle’s Politics provided three different interpretations on how that government operated. The varying opinions are not without bias or without influence on the social norms from 400-100 B.C.E. Greece, including opinions on the proper roles of women, slaves, and “most importantly” men. There is also a bias from the upper class of each culture with all three of the contributors were raised in a court or an upper-class family. Each of the Philosophers agreed that a government is a means for higher living. Aristotle called this Telos, or the end goal; ultimate understanding.
With the foundation of the United States government most resembling Polybius’s description of an ideal city, the structure is approached to deal with the imperfect, and corruptible nature of humans, unlike Plato’s vision with perfect beings. At the top of this system is the Consul with supreme power of the military and foreign affairs, very similar to the President’s role in the U.S. constitution. Polybius admits that viewing the powers of this role alone would look like a royal government with the highest authority. The difference in a Monarchy and the Consuls, is the need for approval from the Senate which controls the treasury, and communication, as well as criminal justice and economic resources. The Senate’s role is comparable to the Legislative branch. Again, with the realization that isolating this segment of the Roman Constitution does not look ideal, Polybius claims the role of the commoners or the people are the most important. With each position of power dependent on the other, a natural checks and balances of power should occur that protects the system from corrupting. Unfortunately, the U.S. is an example of how a government set up as Polybius described can still fall into imbalance when the interests are diverted from that of the
Aristotle describes how the three accepted forms of good government can hastily be corrupted to serve some over others. A Monarchy with a royal family dedicated to serve the people can quickly become a tyranny as soon as the Monarch’s interest becomes self-absorbed. Similarly, an aristocracy’s corruption can lead to oligarchy with the primary interest to serve the wealthy. Both of these concerns on corruption are not unmentioned in Plato’s work, and neither is Aristotle’s third example of corruption with the exception of differing terms. A Constitutional government is the honest form, with democracy being the corrupted in the interest of the needy. Plato’s democracy is not bad in itself, but is not ideal with the fault of too much liberty leading to false