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From the Greek word "polis"(state-city), the Politics or Ta Politika of Aristotle is the second half of a single treatise of which his Ethics is the first. Both deal with one and the same subject. This subject is what Aristotle calls in one place the "philosophy of human affairs" but more frequently Political or Social Science. He collected and studied the constitutions of over 150 city states before writing the Politics.

Contents 1 Classification of constitutions 2 Overview 2.1 Book I 2.2 Book II 2.3 Book III 2.4 Book IV 2.5 Book V 2.6 Book VI 2.7 Book VII 2.8 Book VIII 3 Sources 4 External links

[edit] Classification of constitutions

In Book 3, Chapters 6-7, Aristotle establishes a famous classification of six types of rule divided on the one hand between those that are 'good' and those that are 'corrupt', and on the other, between the different number of rulers that make up the decision-making authority, namely, the one, the few, and the many. The good types include monarchy, aristocracy and polity, while the corrupt types include tyranny, oligarchy and democracy or 'mob rule'. Good government rules in the common interest while corrupt government rules in the interest of those who rule.

[edit] Overview

[edit] Book I

• Origin of state
• Slavery
• Household economics
• Natural and unnatural modes of acquiring goods

[edit] Book II

• Criticism of Plato's Republic and other proposed and real constitutions

[edit] Book III

• Who is a citizen?
• Classification of constitutions
• Just distribution of political power
• Types of monarchies

[edit] Book IV

• Tasks of political theory
• Why are there many types of constitutions?
• Types of democracies
• Types of oligarchies
• Polity as the optimal constitution
• Government offices

[edit] Book V

• Constitutional change
• Revolutions in different types of constitutions and ways to preserve constitutions
• Instability of tyrannies

[edit] Book VI

• Democratic constitutions
• Oligarchic constitutions

[edit] Book VII

• Best state and best life
• Ideal state. Its population, territory, position etc.
• Citizens of the ideal state
• Marriage and children

[edit] Book VIII

• Education in the ideal state

[edit] Sources

• Landman, Todd (2003). Issues and Methods in Comparative Politics. An Introduction (2nd ed.). Oxon: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-27270-X.

[edit] External links

• trans. by Harris Rackham
• Australian copy trans. by Benjamin Jowett
• HTML at constitution.org trans. by Benjamin Jowett
• PDF at McMaster trans. by Benjamin Jowett
• Aristotle's Political Theory at Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
• Politics full text by Project Gutenbergde:Politik (Aristoteles)

pl:Polityka (Arystoteles) ro:Politica (Aristotel) fi:Politiikka (Aristoteles) pt:Política (Aristóteles)