Aristotle and Plutarch on The Best Regime

Paper Summary:

The paper discusses the ideas of Aristotle in the "Politics" about the three good regimes and the three bad regimes and describes the Aristotelian kingships, aristocracies, and the polis in detail. It contrasts these with the examples of Sparta and Rome as described by Plutarch in his "Lives".

From the Paper:

"The question of what is the best regime is perhaps the most important and highly debated question of political theory. Many would argue that pursuit of the best regime itself is the purpose of political theory. In his Politics, Aristotle describes both his ideal and his practical regime and shows how the two are appropriate to ruling different cities. Plutarch takes examples from the lives of Lycurgas and Numa, showing how two different leaders made two different regimes successful for their cities. After reading the works of Aristotle and Plutarch, we can arrive at the conclusion that there is no single best regime, and that each regime must be carefully tailored to the people that will be ruled under it."

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