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Plato provides a contrast with this view of Politics. Socrates is openly critical of Themistocles, Pericles, and Thucydides' other heroes. They did not make Athens powerful. Power is not ability to do whatever you fancy at the moment - the tyrant's power is useless because he does not know what to do with it. True power is the ability to achieve your most important goals. The goal is happiness, a worthwhile life; politics is cooperative …

…and history. So as well as being a political philosopher, he was a political analyst and historian. He also offers practical a! dvice on how to preserve and stabilize whatever sort of constitution you have; e.g. he offers advice to tyrants. 'Avoid polarization' seems to be Aristotle's motto. Whatever the constitution, it will work better and last longer if it moves toward the middle, by incorporating elements of, or imitating, its opposite. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ **Bibliography**