Ideal State of Aristotle
His political thought, is a mixture of the elements of political ideals and political actualities. His books II, III, VIII of politics deal with political ideas whereas books IV, V and VI deals with political actualities. In the description of his ideal state, Aristotle clearly felt the impact of Plato’s laws rather than his Republic. Sabine says that what Aristotle calls the ideal state is always Plato’s second best state. Before dealing the ideal state of Aristotle, it may be noted that he was not an absolutist like Plato. For example if a community has a single outstanding person with predominant virtue – Monarchy shall be an ideal government. If it possesses a few men of virtue –Aristocracy is best suited government. If it possesses many people have the ability to rule the best government is Polity. If we look at all these observation of Aristotle, we conclude that he rules out Monarchy as an ideal state because in it the ‘god among men’ cannot be...