030702 SE Aristotle’s Politics: The Enduring Relevance of Ancient Constitutional Thought (2023W)

„There is hardly any other work in the history of political philosophy that has created a more important legacy than Aristotle’s Politics. The core virtue of this work is to approach the problem of constitutional ordering from the perspective of a class division of society. In most societies it is the case that many people are relatively poor and that a few control most of the resources. Each group has their own preference for a constitutional system. While the poor favor democracy, the wealthy want to shut the rabble out. They support oligarchy. Aristotle’s proposal for resolution of this conflict is the famous “mixing” of elements from democratic and oligarchic systems. But why study Aristoteles today? The explanation is straightforward: Modern constitutionalism no longer treats class division as relevant to the constitutional order. And this is, arguably, its major mistake.”