nation establish the character of government and depending on the goodness of the character formed a political structure either sinks or swims. What Aristotle is saying is that in order to put together a political system of maintained justice, freedom and order, society must start with the right materials. The right materials are young minds trained to pursue the virtues that comprise excellent adults. The sentence at the end of the first paragraph of book VIII of The Politics shows the value Aristotle placed on excellent character being a fundamental part of excellent government where he says the better the character, the better the government. The issue of government policy concerning character formation and the implications of politicians passing legislation specifically aimed at improving moral character as a means of eliminating social ills is precisely the same issue James Q. Wilson addresses in his essay The Rediscovery of Character: Private Virtue and Public Policy. Wilson structures his essay by going through a variety of public problems he believes can only be explained by the deterioration of character in modern America. The first part of Wilsons essay goes through present government problems within the realms of schooling, welfare, public finance, and crime, at the end of each of these summaries Wilson comes to the conclusion that lack of character is the sole underlying cause in common behind these social evils. Like Aristotle, Wilson proposes a theory of eliminating social problems beginning by improving the parts of society as means of improving the whole . Wilson suggests that we begin to do the right things with regards to small matters and through time we become accustomed to doing what is right, and we begin to take pleasure in it. This idea of developing good character through habit Wilson admits is familiar because he has borrowed it directly from the works of Aristotle. In the last section of Wilsons es...
