On Aristotle's Political Thought

Aristotle is an outstanding political thinker of ancient Greece. In order to save the declining city-state of slavery, Aristotle put forward a relatively complete system of political theory based on criticism and inheritance of predecessors' ideas. As the founder of western political thought, his political thought has important theoretical and practical significance. This paper excavates excellent content in his political thought mainly from democracy, the rule of law and the rule of virtue.For Aristotle, the main body of democratic politics should be the middle class, and political decision-making should depend on the will of the majority. He thought republic regime was the best among all kinds of regimes, then he pointed out that economic equality should be as the necessary basis of democratic system, and the limited property rights and the separation and check among government departments should be as the security of democracy. Aristotle put forward a clearer idea of the rule of law, then advocated the rule of good law was superior to man. which meant that city-state's power must be placed under the law, and the law should be universally obeyed. In Aristotle's thought of the rule of virtue, mean perfection was followed by his political theory as a general principle, which run through his series of political thought. Aristotle also advocated fairness and justice, especially supported the proportional distributive justice, and thought justice was the necessary prerequisite for social harmony. He affirmed the rights of citizen, especially the right of political participation. At the same time, he also emphasized that citizens should bear the corresponding duties.Aristotle's political thought has far-reaching implications to the western and the world history of political thought, of course, it also has the inevitable limitations of times and class. Today we must strive to recognize and dig its real inspiration and reference to China's constructions of democracy, rule of law and harmonious society while understanding its limitations clearly.