Democracy…
Good or Bad?
Aristotle
defines a democracy as “the rule of the poor and the rule of the majority.” He
doesn’t particularly support this type of government because it could
potentially be dangerous. If the majority is poor and uneducated then they
would be the ones in charge by definition of a democracy. While having these
lesser people as rulers the nation is set for turmoil.
This
picture above is a huge component of United States history; it is the signing
of the constitution. I believe that if Aristotle saw this he would not consider
America a democracy. His comments about the painting may include the following:
only upper class, only educated men, small number. All of these observations
would push Aristotle to believe this was an oligarchy.
The
painting possesses many elements of colonial times. For example, the furniture
and the chandelier are very relevant to the time along with the color scheme.
The classic dark greens, blues and reds give the image a serious and
sophisticated look. The windows are open letting in sun on Washington and the
American flags. The room is filled with around 40 delegates who signed the
constitution while missing about 16 others who had not.
Those
who had signed the constitution mostly consist of senators, governors or house
of representative members. All of these men were well educated and knew what
they were talking about when it came to politics. This group did not represent
all members of society very well although some did come small rural areas.
The
democracy that we see in America today is not very comparable to what Aristotle
called a democracy. He would have expected to see many poor people in charge of
the nation let alone some wealthy knowledgeable white men. I think that
Americans call ourselves democrats because we do get to help chose who leads us
and we do get some say in how the nation is ran. We would not be true democrats
in Aristotle’s eyes however because the majority does not rule.
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