Fourth, public office is hereditary and those in power rule, not the law. Third, public office is hereditary and the son succeeds the father. Second, there is a high property qualification for holding public office and they themselves elect in filling vacancies.

First, there is a minimum property qualification for holding public office. In addition, he defines four different kinds of oligarchy.

The last form is vulnerable to becoming demagoguery of the majority (1291b:30-40 1291a:5-10). Lastly, anyone can hold public office and the multitude of rules, not the law. Fourth, anyone can hold public office, but the law rules. Third, only the nobly born hold public office, but the law rules. Second, there is a modest minimum property qualification to hold public office. First, everyone is equal by law regardless of wealth and majority rules. Within the notables, there are kinds distinguished by wealth, good birth, virtue, education, and whatever is spoken of as based on the same sort of difference as these (1291b:20-30).Īristotle defines five different kinds of democracy. Within the people, there are the farmers, those engaged in the arts, the marketing element, the element connected with the sea, the menial elements having little property, and the free element. Within the two regimes, there are several kinds of both the people and of the notables. Regimes are instituted accordingly on the basis of the sorts of preeminence associated with these which holds to be two sorts of regimes: democracy and oligarchy (1291b:5-10). While the well off are few and the poor are many, these parts of the city oppose the other. Within regimes are two distinctive classes and forms of government which are the well off and the poor. Within each regime, there are the farmer, the working element and craftsmen, the marketing element and traders, the laboring element, the warrior element, the priests (Aristotle skips this sixth element but suggests this possibility), the rich, and the magisterial (1290b:40 1291a:5-35). Oligarchies exist when the few wealthy and better born have authority and grant benefits in proportion to a person’s wealth (1280a:10-30 1290a:5-10). Democracies exist when the free and poor, being a majority, have the authority to rule, and have an equal share in the city. In Aristotle’s Politics, he focuses much on the regimes of an oligarchy and of democracy. Aristotle’s Politics: Oligarchy and Democracy Short Summary

Aristotle view on democracy