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In Aristotle’s Politics is found an astonishing theory about political power and its relationship to wealth. Aristotle is well known for seeing the city in terms of households and linking the rule of households – economy – to the rule of the city. This art of household management contrasts sharply with chrematistics – the making of money for its own sake, rather than for the purpose of thriving from the abundance the circulation of money can produce. This was a critically important insight for Karl Marx. It has continued relevance in our own time as capital expands its holding in an economy that generally fails to ground its true measure in the provisioning and prosperity of families and households. Economics, for Aristotle, should be a subset of politics. The type of regime prevailing in a state constitutes and is constituted by the distribution of resources in that state. Aristotle would expect to find monarchy where the control over the majority of resources rests in the hands of a single person. Likewise, aristocracy prevails where the wealth is shared by a few and democracy – Aristotle’s preference among the three types – exists where wealth is widespread among many people.— Unknown
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