Activity 3- Exploring Key Concepts

Authoritarian: The government is the authority. The individual obeys. This is the opposite of a libertarian philosophy, in which the government leaves the individual alone as much as possible.

Totalitarian: In totalitarian rule, the government tries to control every aspect of the lives of its citizens, including their thoughts and beliefs, by any means possible.

Oligarchical Collectivism: Aristotle defines three types of government, each with a good form in which the ruler or rulers have the good of the state in mind and a bad form in which the rulers govern by self-interest.

Aristotle’s Three Forms of Government
Type	Good Form	Bad Form
One Ruler	Monarchy: rule by one wise person	Tyranny: rule by one bad person
Small Group Rule	Aristocracy: rule by a few wise people	Oligarchy: rule by a few bad people
Mass Rule	Polity or “constitutional government”: rule by the people for the good of the whole	Democracy: rule by the people for individual self-interest

Utopia: A perfect, happy society in which all of humanities problems have been solved.

Anti-Utopia or Dystopia: A nightmare society in which life is as difficult and unhappy as it could be; often the result of trying to create a utopia.

 

                    Group Discussion

Most of the forms of government listed above exist in the world today. Each of these political concepts are either still being used or have been used in the past. There are many Authoritarian governments still existing today. One example would be China where the government is based on the principles of obedience towards authority. North Korea, is recognized as a totalitarian government for the very little control that its citizens possess. The country of Oman is classified as an Absolute Monarchy where there is only one ruler, Qaboos bin Said Al Said, who is head of state and government. The United States would be an example of Aristotle's form, a "Mass Rule". It could fall between the 'good' form, a constitutional government where people rule for the good of the whole, and the 'bad' form, a democracy where the people rule for individual self-interest. In America, we have a president to keep the country in order, but ultimately the people hold the power to make decisions through voting.