He held that “the wealth of the nation–the more capable set of men” should claim positions of power within a modern political society for the same reasons given by Aristotle. The renowned ‘father of the U.S Constitution’, James Madison, envisioned a nation based on Aristotle’s version of democracy. In Book 4, Chapter 11, he writes, “In democracies the rich should be spared not only should their property not be divided, but their incomes too should be protected.” This was, to him, a major flaw in democracy. Of all the types he explores, one can conclude that Aristotle finds democracy “the most tolerable” (Book 4).Īristotle’s support of democracy, however, is limited to his belief in restriction of the poor’s tendency to “covet their neighbor’s goods.” He asserts that if wealth is concentrated among elites within a democracy, the poor will inherently use their majority power to redistribute wealth in an egalitarian fashion. In Politica, the first great classic of political science, Aristotle famously surveys a wide variety of socioeconomic systems. “What if Aristotle were elected president by a large popular majority and his political party took both houses of Congress?”
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