Blog 5 Aristotle and Tocqueville

  

 Aristotle and Tocqueville

1.)  Aristotle would have approved of the picture of the men working on the Constitution.  The men was working on a way for the government to have power over the states and Aristotle approves of that.  All Aristotle wanted was a government that was far and just and one that allowed all the citizens to have a say in how the government was being run.  Since that is what the men were trying to accomplish in the picture, Aristotle would have like the picture.

2.) The painting represent most of the elements of society.  The man standing who is George Washington is clearly the President and the leader of the government.  The other men on stage with him represent the rest of the government that oversee the citizens.  Everyone else in the room represent the common people.  In society they are the citizens.  The citizens are calling out to the government with their opinions and what they want to see happen.  It is at the core the basic way that our representative democracy works.

3.) Aristotle would have assumed that the government they were creating was a democracy.  The picture shows some people sitting that all seem to be equal to the others.  Also the picture shows that everyone is able to speak their mind.  That is something Aristotle felt very strongly about because that would show that everyone had a say in the government.

4.) The men well represented the white men of the country.  They were all wronged by Great Britain and the men wanted changes to occur so they made the change happen themselves.  However, the men did not represent all of society since a lot of the citizens were either women or slaves and those citizens did not have any representation at the Constitutional Convention.  Since they were not represented, any citizens other then men were not included in the Constitution fairly.

5.) Tocqueville felt similar to that of Aristotle.  Tocqueville came to the United States to gain a deeper knowledge and understanding of the government that we had here.  Both of them wanted a government that was fair and equal to all its citizens.  Tocqueville found some of that here but the government that they both want does not exist today.  We however can get close and that is what both men wanted.