It is important for the two classes to work together for only when they enter into a partnership can either party benefit. In any community, the citizens need to work together in order to ensure that the city is successful and united. Individuals, no matter their class, are always striving to ensure a better position for themselves and this sometimes creates inequality for others. However humans cannot exist on their own because, “a human being is by nature a political animal” (1253a2). This means that humans are naturally drawn to politics and want to be included; people have a natural desire of wanting to belong to a group. Humans thrive when they are in a group hence the need for partnerships. A polity achieves justice because …show more content…
A polity is, “a mixture of oligarchy and democracy” (1293b33). Creating a polity shows how the two different systems are working together and a partnership is all about working together to achieve a better cause then what would have resulted if one had been operating alone. Instead, the two different systems are combined based on their best characteristics, which creates a new and stable system that benefits a larger number of people. A polity provides all members to have their ideas heard; mixing the regimes makes the line dividing the different classes much less pronounced. In a polity, “they all do participate and govern” (1293a4-5). A polity is a relationship between politics and members of the community, which allows all members despite their amount of personal wealth to be involved in important political decisions. Politics is about compromise and accommodation of natural differences such as class and is about ensuring that these different views of what is good are highlighted. Citizens are supposed to be allowed to live the good and complete life in the polis, but this can only happen when there is a balance this occurs when happiness is present for the greatest number of people. Justice is more than ensuring that the greatest number of people are happy; it is also ensuring that each party has its fair share of offices and honours thus ensuring that both classes are well represented in the partnership. Justice is all about balance and mixing claims and beliefs so that each part has a share and the middle class is able to create stability and avoid extreme ruling. A polity is the best type of partnership because the majority of citizens have power most of the time; compromise and balance allow for happiness; merit is preserved, but those who were without wealth and property have a voice in politics because of the mass
But also, a healthy and vibrant democracy requires citizens to share their time together and meet in public places. The failure of this common space, the growing separation between rich and poor, together with the increase in inequality causes a threat to democracy.
It can be argued that event without the “hereditary orders,” a distinction of interests can be found and were discussed in several papers. Interests will vary from state to state, from the rural farmers to the businessmen of the cities. These distinctions were discussed in Federalist No. 10 as factions. While the hierarchy of such interests is not related to nobility as found in England, a faction is defined here as a number of citizens who are united and motivated by common interests adverse to the rights of other citizens or to the interests of the community. It is proposed that there are only two methods of curing the adverse effects of factions: by removing its causes or by controlling its effects. The intent of the proposed system of checks and balances seeks to cure selfish interest by the latter. Power to any one person or branch would be limited by the other branches, preventing any person, branch, or faction from gaining an excess amount of power and leverage towards their own interests rather than the collective interests of the people.
The lawyer and scholar believed that there should be one universal government ruling the people, this government would be a led by a mix of all three classes. He states how a monarchy would be the ideal rule, but is extremely unrealistic as all humans reason equally. By instating a mixed form of government, people would feel more of a connection with the laws and more of a personal responsibility to follow them if they had a part in creating them. Additionally, all people would be seen as equal before the law as all have equal capabilities and through effort, a common good can be achieved; the only thing differentiating humans is their variety of gifts, besides this, there is no variation. A person’s economic status by no means defines their ability to lead, by all groups participating in government, there are no idle citizens that are not a part of the
Given the nature of man, factions are inevitable. As long as men hold different opinions, have different amounts of wealth, and own different amount of property, they will continue to fraternize with people who are most similar to them. Both serious and trivial reasons account for the formation of factions but the most important source of faction is the unequal distribution of property. Men of greater ability and talent tend to possess more property than those of lesser ability, and since the first object of government is to protect and encourage ability, it follows that the rights of property owners must be protected. Property is divided unequally, and, in addition, there are many different kinds of property; men have different interests depending upon the kind of property they own. For example, the interests of landowners differ from those who own businesses. Government must not only protect the conflicting interests of property owners, it must, at the same time, successfully regulate the conflicts that result from those who own, and those who do not own, property.
The class system has been in place within humanity since the very birth of economic trade. It is a fact of life that others will seek self-betterment and gain power to provide for those that they love and their own personal interest. Throughout the years the implementation of a social class system has helped to differentiate the types of economic situations as nation and serve as a system to work toward the betterment of the society as a whole. However, as the world became more productive and the gaps between the higher classes and lower classes increased the efficiency of the social class system and the decisions made from the individuals within it has been called into question. Kalen Ockerman opened the channel to question if the class system is the helpful institution that benefits of all its citizens or if the lower classes are not getting the support and attention they deem necessary.
(p1) Broadly speaking, class is about economic and social inequality… (p6) We have a tendency for groups of advanced people to congregate together, and groups of disadvantaged people to congregate so that inequalities persist from generation to generation.
The Aristotelian view of democracy showed democracy as a supreme state of being, promoting equality more than anything. It allowed every person to have as much say in a government as any other person, and yet still allowed individuality to reign. To follow this path of "true" democracy is to follow the path to a perfect country. Yet America, which prides itself on being a truly democratic nation, is filled with corruption and extortion, nothing like the Utopia Aristotle portrayed.
Aristotle argues that in order for a polis to emerge, a union between man and women must convene. Later a household must be introduced which unites with other households to form a village, villages come together to form city-states. This theory is Aristotle’s natural view that an individual can not be self sufficient Plato argues that, in order to achieve absolute justice, a city-state is needed.
Polis’s are small urban communities that numbered in the thousands during the time of ancient greece. they had a small government system that allowed them all to vote and be involved in their democracy. These small city states made up the great empires of the Greek and Roman cultures. They could not have been governed better with the concept of democracy. With all the city state's governing themselves then when the bigger political decisions came around that is when the central government, or head of all the other city states, was given the power to decide what would happen to these polises. That is how the founding fathers of the United States of America created their government that lasts even today. They modeled it after two great
Since it was believed that human beings reach their highest levels of morality and virtue by participating in government, (pg. 6) it would only make sense to create a government for the people by the people. But in order to limit the government and protect the rights of citizens, the new government would have to consist of checks and balances type of system. This is the reason for the three...
...quals for political rule, the theoretical possibility of absolute rule becomes a crucial part of it. This causes difficulties because if Aristotle values citizenship and political participation as vital for attaining eudaimonia, then the possibility of absolute rule is clearly inconsistent with his standard of justice as virtuous and capable citizens would have to give up their citizenship. Conversely, Aristotle would argue that surrendering citizenships can be done without loss of virtue or eudaimonia as both types of rule are equally just. Fundamentally, both provide outstanding virtuosity, ability and rule in the interest of all which is crucial for obtaining a good government and eudaimon life. Thus, even in the most just state, the value of political participation is such that it should be accepted when offered although it is not essential for the eudaimon life
Dworkin argues that society values political integrity for its own sake because of the resulting ability to have internal harmony without direct compromise. Under the acceptance of political integrity, he claims that political society becomes a special form of community that promotes its moral authority to assume and deploy a monopoly of coercive force. He promotes the view that the community should be seen as a distinct moral agent in that the social and intellectual practices that treat community that way ought to be protected. With political integrity integrated as an imperative aspect of the law, these practices are accepted without refuting our instincts through internal compromises, such as checkerboard solutions.
From the beginning of ancient history the main question for political philosophy is how a human being exists in society, who should govern the society, how should the society be governed, who are the best rulers and how should they behave themselves, what is just and what is unjust, is better to be governed through just or not, how should the states be structured? These are main questions in political philosophy, that until today are strictly discussed. The major tasks of political philosophers are to analyze the nature of human being and to evaluate the ways in which an individual relates with society he lives in. The study of human nature is one of the most important aspects of political science and philosophy. In the process of creating a form of governance it is essential to understand the innate characteristics of human nature in order to avoid a bad government for all society and to achieve the ways how people should be governed most effectively. From the ancient time the roots of justification of political power were tied to sights of human nature.
Politics is the means for attaining valued things. Although, valued things are different in every society, the means of securing those things has never changed. The competition for power, authority and influence will always be the backbone of politics. Applying power, authority and influence to the valued things that support the public good, will produce the quality of life a society desires. In the present day, citizens in the United States demand certain valued things such as welfare, education, safe streets and healthcare. Through politics, citizens can apply their power in many different ways to get the things they want. Power is the ability to get someone to do something they may or may not want to do. Through the use of or the application of coercion, persuasion, manipulation and negotiation, power is used to influence the system.
What Is Politics On hearing the word politics, what usually springs to mind are images of government, politicians and their policies or more negatively the idea of corruption and dirty tricks. The actual definition seems to have been obscured and almost lost by such representations and clichés that tend not to pinpoint the true essence, which defines this thing, called politics. In order to make an attempt at a definition of politics a systematic approach is required. To begin with, a brief historical overview will be considered, to understand the origins of politics. Following this, different core concepts, which are imperative to a definition of politics, will be discussed, in the hope to discover a true and fair interpretation of the word politics.