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Showing posts from August, 2023

Aristotle's Classification of Constitutions

 Aristotle involved empirical method (based on observation by five senses - sight, sound, smell, test and touch, and not speculation) of studying politics and combined it with the comparative method . He sent his disciples to different places of the world for making case histories of constitutions thereof. Accordingly, they prepared 158 cases histories . Aristotle himself observed them and concluded with the following forms of constitutions:-    Cycle of change of governments - Aristotle holds that no form of government is in the purest form and stable. They keep changing overtime for following reasons:- Monarchy is good in normal circumstances. But when the absolute power of a monarch grows enormously and goes beyond limits it takes up the form of tyranny because power and virtue cannot go together. But tyranny is soon overthrown by elected few, and aristocracy is set up.  In the absence of any effective curbs on their power, aristocracy degenerated into oligarchy...

Aristotle's Concept of Justice

Aristotle's justice was conservatist in nature. That's he carry forwarded the ideas of justice that existed earlier. His justice was just opposite to that of Plato's, i.e., revolutionary.  Aristotle identified three types of justices - Distributive Justice - it deals with the allocation of honor and wealth . Legislators should be concerned with this justice. The basic principle of this justice is - t reating equals equally and unequals unequally on the basis of prevailing customs and customary laws.  Retributive (or corrective) Justice - it deals with imposition of punishment and payment of damages. Involuntary loss sustained in transaction between individual members of the community would be fully compensated . Judges are concerned with this form of justice.  Commutative Justice - it deals with determination of the amount of one sort of goods and services to be rendered in return for another sort in voluntary transaction of buying and selling, or letting and hiring. ...