Free Paper on Aristotle on Politics: The Highest Good of Man is Happiness

One of the greatest Greek philosophers, Aristotle of Stagira, who was a student of Plato and later on gained experience to become the father of political science, explains why understanding the government and having the correct form of leadership is a crucial matter in the lives of the citizens in a particular country. According to Aristotle, the highest good is happiness. He describes in Nichomacean ethics that the supreme good of man is happy and that it suffices in itself. In politics, Aristotle trusted that the query of the state, how it should be arrayed, and endeavor to meet its targets are some of the crucial attainment of happiness. If, therefore, it is the case that having the correct form of government is both directly and indirectly related to the happiness of citizens. While happiness is the highest good, it holds a lot of weight, and it matters to a high degree which form of government the US is being led under since this decides how happy the citizens will be.

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Among the known forms of leadership that have been around for centuries are the republic and democratic forms of leadership (Sealey, 1990). Albeit there are others, too, such as aristocracy and polity, this paper focuses on republic and democracy with an aim to bring out the key differences between the two forms of government. The paper also gives a case of the United States and describes whether it is a republic or a democratic country.

Democracy is obtained from two Greek words: “demos,” which means the people, and “Kratia,” which means the power of authority (Dean et al., 2017). Thus, in a democratic form of leadership, it is the majority who reigns, and minorities have no insurance against the authority held by the majority. In contrast, the republic has a collection of rules named the constitution, which aims to equate the authority distribution to both the majority and minority. Thus, democracy is ruled solely by the majority, while the republic is ruled by the rules that are set by those elected to represent other citizens. The two forms of government also differ in their economic system. In a democracy, the economy is free-market and requires rules that control economies to be decided by the electorate or the representatives (Heo,2001). In contrast to the republic, which is a nearly free-market economy that enable the electorate or leaders to choose laws that govern the economies.

Although in both forms of governance, all citizens are treated equally, there is a slight distinguishing feature still in these forms of leadership (LaRosa, 2012). In a democracy, to a certain extent, the majority seems to dominate over the minority, while in a republic, all citizens have an equal say and are treated in a similar way irrespective of their political position. In terms of sovereignty is held by the whole population as a singular entity in democratic leadership, while in the republic, it is done by individual citizens. At the same time, both forms of leadership have slight demerits, such as in a democracy. The majority suppresses the minority. Whereas in the republic, the occurrence of deadlocks and high frequency of debate occurs in the functionality of the governorship.

While there is one main and known republic form of government, there are three forms of democracy. The direct democracy each citizen has the authority to direct the path of the government by casting a vote. The second form is representative in which the citizens elect leaders that will represent them in making that choice. It is also known as indirect democracy. The last form is constitutional, which minimizes the power of the majority by use of a set of rules in making decisions. Since America was founded, different leaders have directly expressed their views on how America is being led. While it is not a direct form of democracy, it is also not a republic based on the way the leadership works. In the US, the citizens cast votes to elect representatives who decide how leadership will take place: this is indirect democracy. Also, the court usually relies on the constitution to limit the power of the majority to have some level of equity: this is a constitutional democracy.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the two forms of leadership have great differences and demerits in their own path. Democracy on one side is designed to enable the majority to be the sole rulers. They decided how the government would operate. And the citizen is given full power to decide this by being given a chance to vote. Once the citizen has voted, then the majority are the ones to decide how all will be run. The republic, on the other hand, relies on a set of rules called the Constitution. Unlike democracy, in which the majority suppresses the minority, in a republic, equity is ensured by refereeing everything in the constitution. While the US has not clearly stated that it is handling leadership based on democracy, a small critical analysis shows that it is not a direct democracy, but it is a constitutional and representative democracy.

References

Dean, M., toplišek, A., barron, A., & brown, W. (2017). Introduction: Undoing the demos. European Political Science, 16, 263-289.https://link.springer.com/article/10.1057/eps.2016.11

Heo, U., & Tan, A. C. (2001). Democracy and economic growth: A causal analysis. Comparative Politics, 463-473.https://www.jstor.org/stable/422444?casa_token=FyipvuPq2SkAAAAA:yAu990ThLVTyRd-N2FfLCQtFfwQSrPx11U7oOTH4rzgC6vO-GoL3NAGDGw-zk5rCvPddlZ6yHDmCk7GLr9X4TIPyKsUScQ8n6xjx0mz5qlgbHgLPBJgULa

Rosa, B. D. (2012). Democracy or republic, which is it?.http://www.devvy.com/pdf/larosa/larosa_democracy_or_republic.pdfSealey, R. (1990). The Athenian Republic: Democracy of the Rule of Law? Penn State Press.