Chomsky on Madison

[Brad De Long]

>Here's a quote a friend sent to me that is attributed to Dr. Chomsky.  I
>thought it was kind of interesting so I'll pass it along.
>
>"... A couple of thousand years later, when our Founding Fathers were writing
>
>the Constitution, James Madison noticed the same problem, but whereas
Aristotle's preferred solution had been to reduce poverty..."

This is totally and profoundly dorky.

Aristotle's preferred regime was *not* a democracy with a limited 
degree of inequality--that's Rousseau. Aristotle's preferred regime 
was an oligarchy in which the narrow elite had the leisure to engage 
in philosophy and rule justly...

Madison believed that improvements in the science of government since 
Aristotle's time allowed a representative democracy to function 
without running into the insoluble problems pointed out by 
Aristotle...

Jeez. Let's have at least *some* actual contact with the doctrines 
advocated by the ancient sources...

Brad DeLong