Aristotle's Many Multitudes And Their Powers

Abstract

Politics 3.11 appears to show Aristotle at his most democratic, for in this chapter he defends the right of ordinary people to participate in government and he might even make a multitude of ordinary people authoritative in the polis. Contrary to the dominant interpretation, I argue, however, that this chapter concerns different multitudes at different points and that the first multitude forms a polity and the second is used as a moderating force and (by discussing in detail the historical regimes mentioned by Aristotle in Politics and by drawing on our knowledge of classical polises) does not necessarily form a democracy — Aristotle's focus here is not on typology but on the argument that power should be shared and not held exclusively by any one group. The article is, in effect, an extended discussion of what Aristotle means, in terms of governance shared by the multitude, by authoritative.