is regime and the two regimes previously discussed, it is evident that they do not conform very well to the ideal regime in his mind. In avoiding this mistakes that he outlines in these three regimes Aristotle shows the reader the characteristics of his political theory, and describes how to avoid such mistakes.The political philosophy of Aristotle is mainly derived from the fact that it avoids the mistakes made by other leaders of regimes as describe in The Politics. While much of his theory of political life can be seen in the solutions he gives to the problems encountered by other regimes, there is another important reason that he is able to avoid the mistakes of others. Instead of a view of politics that stresses the importance of regime legislation, Aristotle seems to favor a view of politics that stresses statesmanship over legislation. Aristotle appears to be more interested in the preservation of a regime than the implementation of a new one. In criticizing the regimes of others he does not endeavor to change their regime entirely as he concedes that there are some good elements in many regimes. Rather, he discourses on the changes that could be made within different regimes in order to make the closer to the best regime possible. He seems to think that the task of preserving a regime is greater than the task of founding one and requires a higher capacity of wisdom and political expertise. This view is supported by a quote of Aristotle early in book three, “since to reform a regime is no less a task than to institute one from the beginning” (119). The reader is able to see that the reason that Aristotle is able to avoid the mistakes made in other regimes is that he has studied them intensively, as evidenced by his extensive discourses on the subject. Through his reasoning on the problems of previous regimes and the ways in which they could have been better preserved, Aristotle forms a theory of political lif...
