Aristotle

Question

Aristotle

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Aristotle was an ancient Greek philosopher, not British, and his work predates Thomas Hobbes by many centuries. He developed a classification scheme for governments (monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy, and their corrupt forms tyranny, oligarchy, and ochlocracy) that is foundational to political science. Aristotle did not specifically advocate for presidential systems with checks and balances as understood in modern contexts; this concept is more closely associated with later thinkers like Montesquieu and the framers of the U.S. Constitution. While Aristotle discussed various aspects of communal life and governance, the specific concept of the "free rider problem" as it is understood in modern economic and political theory was not directly addressed by him.