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INSTRUCTOR
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Child Education
Education for young children is very important yet it is often
not given enough attention. We are all born naïve and innocent
without knowing anything. Young children are barely aware of
who they are. According to Ahmad, the learning process begins
at early ages just as growth and development begin. As such,
teaching and learning is an essential aspect of a child's
developmental stages. The growth and development process of a
child can be guided through the process of teaching and
learning. At very young ages, children are very eager to learn
and understand various aspects of their surrounding
environment. The learning process advances to include other
factors as a child grows. For this reason, it is important to
understand a child's learning process and create the most
accommodative learning environment. More so, identifying
teaching practices that promote a child's learning process is
crucial to their growth and development from an early age.
Teaching refers to the process of facilitating, in this case,
children to acquire new knowledge and understand themselves
as well as their surrounding environment. Different approaches
of teaching are adopted for various groups of people. As such,
the type of approach adopted for early childhood education is
different from approaches used with other groups of people.
Children are very brittle at a young age, therefore, they must be
handled with care. A small error made when teaching a child
can have long-lasting effects, (Bullard, 10). The main purpose

of teaching practices among infants is to facilitate them into
becoming who they are naturally meant to be. Teaching in early
childhood education is based on observations made on the
infants. The main role of a teacher at this stage is to encourage
good behavior and discourage bad habits. Therefore, teaching in
children's education involves more nurturing practices rather
than inculcating new knowledge and skills among infants.
On the other hand, learning refers to the process through which
young children acquire knowledge and develop awareness about
their surroundings. This process involves various ways through
which children can understand the guidance and teachings of
their educators. As such, the learning process is dependent on
the cognitive abilities of individual children. Some children are
fast-learners while others are slow learners. “Early childhood
education and care (ECEC) has been recognized as a
fundamental step in children’s development as it lays the
foundation for future growth and learning,” (Bullard, 11).
Learning is a gradual process that starts at a slow pace and
increases speed as the child grows. Children should be
facilitated to learn one thing at a time rather than subjecting
them to an environment that overwhelms their abilities. It is
also important to understand that the learning process for
infants manifests through their childish play and childish
interaction with their surroundings. Therefore, children should
be allowed to explore their childish nature as much as possible.
With the concepts of teaching and learning in mind, we can now
formulate the teaching goals in early childhood education. The
main goal is to ensure that children get a good start as they
develop their cognitive capabilities. This can be achieved by
creating just the right learning environment for children. The
use of objects that children can playfully manipulate and
appealing colors is a good strategy to achieve the goals of
teaching. “Play in a rich environment also provides the vehicle
for optimal cognitive development,” (Ahmad, et al., 5).
According to Piaget's theory of development, infants and
toddlers struggle with logic and can only learn through pretend

play and sensations they get from various objects. Another goal
is to encourage communication among the toddlers. This can be
done by creating and maintaining a good relationship between
children and the surrounding environment. Encouraging playful
activities that involve objects and people in the child’s learning
environment promotes their language development. This
promotes a child’s ability to express themselves freely.
With clearly-stated goals for childhood education, the next step
now involves creating a conducive environment that is
accommodative and promotes a child’s learning process.
Children, especially infants, and toddlers learn through their
interactions with people and objects in their surroundings. It is
important to design a learning environment that will promote
the learning process and ensure that specific goals are met. The
type of environment created for infants and toddlers has a
significant impact on their learning process. Adults “help young
children to make sense of their world and support them to learn
and practice the values of the cultures and communities in
which they live and learn,” (Casper and Sharon, 5). Time,
reflection and planning are factors that must be considered
when creating an emotionally supportive environment for
infants and toddlers. Also, the environment design must account
for the conditions that the children are exposed to outside of the
learning space. A supportive learning environment is well-
organized, dependable, and flexible.
Families are the first and primary teachers for toddlers and
infants, therefore, they must be involved in early childhood
education. Toddlers and infants can detect a tension between
adults and adjust accordingly. In such situations, children are
stressed and cannot freely express themselves. For this reason,
families must be involved in the process of designing the
learning environment. Creating a two-way structured
communication between teachers and parents is crucial for the
assessment of a child’s development. It also enables the
scheduling of caregiving practices based on the parent's work
schedules. Engaging families enables caregivers to understand

the culture, values, and beliefs that the toddler is exposed to at
home and incorporate the same when teaching. This type of
interaction promotes the effectiveness of the caregiving
practices implemented within a learning environment. This can
be done by requesting the families to provide the specific
materials and toys that their children have at home. The parents
can also recommend the type of practices they desire their child
to be exposed to.
The quality of education provided to infants and toddlers can
best be promoted by implementing specific quality standards.
Providing high-quality care means creating the most appropriate
environment for toddlers and infants. Quality is guaranteed by
training the care-givers, implementing relevant policies,
limiting the size of the group handled by one teacher, and
maintaining good communication with the families,
(Vandenbroeck, et.al., 23). In conclusion, all stakeholders must
work together to ensure teaching and learning processes for
infants and toddlers are effective.
Works Cited
Ahmad, Saghir, et al. "Play and Cognitive Development: Formal
Operational Perspective of Piaget's Theory." Journal of
Education and Practice 7.28 (2016): 72-79. Retrieved from
https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1118552.pdf
Bullard, Julie. Creating Environments for Learning: Birth to
Age Eight. Pearson Education. 2013. Retrieved from
https://www.pearsonhighered.com/assets/samplechapter/0/1/3/2/
0132867540.pdf
Casper, Virginia, and Sharon Ryan. "Infant-Toddler Care and
Education: Speaking Up for Young Children and their
Caregivers." Occasional Paper Series 2019.42 (2019): 1.
Retrieved from
https://educate.bankstreet.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1357
&context=occasional-paper-series
Vandenbroeck, Michel, Karolien Lenaerts, and Miroslav
Beblavy. "Benefits of Early Childhood Education and Care and
the conditions for obtaining them." European Expert Network

on Economics of Education 32 (2018): 1-86. Retrieved from
http://www.eenee.de/dms/EENEE/Analytical_Reports/EENEE_
AR32.pdf
35
Equidad Desarro. ISSN 1692-7311 • N.º 34: 35-56 • julio-
diciembre de 2019
https://doi.org/10.19052/eq.vol1.iss34.2
Poverty and the Democratization Crisis
in Nigeria: A Failure of the Social Contract
Joseph O. Jiboku*
Peace A. Jiboku**
Recieved: February 8th, 2019. Acepted: May 15tth, 2019.
Online First version: September 11th, 2019. Final Publication:
October 15th, 2019
* Department of Sociology, Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago
Iwoye, Ogun State, Nigeria.
protected] ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6603-
8202
** Department of Political Science, Olabisi Onabanjo
University, Ago Iwoye, Ogun State, Ni-
protected] ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-
6531-3142
How to cite this article: Jiboku, J. O., & Jiboku, P. A. (2019).
Poverty and the democratization crisis

in Nigeria: a failure of the social contract. Equidad y
Desarrollo, (34), 35-56. https://doi.org/10.19052/
eq.vol1.iss34.2
Social problem, social
contract, poverty,
democracy and
development
I38, O20, J18
JEL Codes
Keywords
Abstract
From the time of philosophers such as Thomas Hobbes, it has
been made explicit that the state and civil society exist under a
mutual-reciprocal relationship. The state exists to serve several
purposes in the interest of society, while the civil society is ex-
pected to fulfill its obligations to the state for the benefit of all.
However, the civil society in Nigeria has not had a good bargain
with the state as poverty pervades the land with dire
consequenc-
es on the entire fabrics of society. The state seems to have
failed
in promoting the interests of its civil society and most citizens
have lost interest in participating in the activities of
government.
Thus, during most elections, Nigeria has witnessed various
forms
of electoral malpractices and even post-election violence as
expe-
rienced in different parts of the country. This paper is a desktop
research incorporating secondary data from relevant institutions
and agencies. Its concern is to examine how the failure of the

social contract has led to poverty, which has affected Nigeria’s
democratization process. The paper suggests that addressing the
issue of poverty will go a long way in ensuring peaceful, free,
and
fair democratization of political structures that will be of
benefit
to all, with applause from the international community.
Equidad Desarro. N.º 34 • julio-diciembre de 2019
Joseph O. Jiboku • Peace A. Jiboku
36
Pobreza y la crisis de la democratización
en Nigeria: un fracaso del contrato social
Resumen
Desde la época de filósofos como Thomas Hobbes, se ha hecho
explícito que el Estado y la sociedad civil existen bajo una re-
lación recíproca y mutua. El Estado existe para servir a varios
propósitos en interés de la sociedad, mientras que se espera que
la sociedad civil cumpla con sus obligaciones con el Estado en
beneficio de todos. No obstante, la sociedad civil en Nigeria no
ha tenido una buena correspondencia con el Estado, ya que la
pobreza invade la tierra con graves consecuencias en todo el te-
jido de la sociedad. El Estado parece haber fallado en promover
los intereses de su sociedad civil y la mayoría de los ciudadanos
han perdido interés en participar en las actividades del
gobierno.
Por lo tanto, durante la mayoría de las elecciones, Nigeria ha
sido
testigo de diversas formas de malas prácticas electorales e,
inclu-

so, de violencia poselectoral, tal como muestra la experiencia en
diferentes partes del país. Este artículo es una investigación de
escritorio que incorpora datos secundarios de las instituciones
y agencias relevantes. Su objetivo es examinar cómo el fracaso
del contrato social ha llevado a la pobreza, lo que ha afectado
el proceso de democratización en Nigeria. El artículo sugiere
que abordar el tema de la pobreza contribuirá en gran medida
a garantizar una democratización pacífica, libre y justa de las
es-
tructuras políticas, lo cual será de beneficio para todos, con el
aplauso de la comunidad internacional.
Pobreza e democratização da crise na Nigéria:
um fracasso do contrato social
Resumo
Desde a época de filósofos como Thomas Hobbes, ficou
explícito
que o estado e a sociedade civil existem sob um relacionamento
recíproco mútuo. O estado existe para server propósitos
múltiplos
no interesse da sociedade, enquanto espera-se que a sociedade
civil cumpra suas obrigações para com o estado em benefício de
todos. No entanto, a sociedade civil na Nigéria não teve uma
boa
barganha com o Estado, pois a pobreza permeia a terra, com
con-
sequências terríveis em todos os tecidos da sociedade. O estado
parece ter falhado na promoção dos interesses da sua sociedade
civil e a maioria dos cidadãos perdeu o interesse em participar
Problema social,
contrato social,
pobreza, democracia
y desarrollo

Palabras clave
Poverty and the Democratization Crisis in Nigeria: A Failure of
the Social Contract
37
das atividades do governo. Assim, durante a maioria das
eleições,
a Nigéria testemunhou várias formas de más práticas eleitorais e
até de violência pós-eleitoral, como experimentado em
diferentes
partes do país. Este artigo é uma pesquisa de oficina que incor-
pora dados secundários de instituições e agências relevantes.
Sua
preocupação é examinar como o fracasso do contrato social
levou
à pobreza, o que afetou o processo de democratização da
Nigéria.
O artigo sugere que abordar a questão da pobreza ajudará muito
a garantir a democratização pacífica, livre e justa das estruturas
políticas que serão benéficas para todos, com aplausos da comu-
nidade internacional.
Problema social,
contrato social,
pobreza, democracia,
desenvolvimento
Palavras chave
Introduction

From time immemorial, man has been in a quest for order and
peace as a vehicle
for the socio-economic transformation of his society. The
emergence of the state
as an institution for the coordination of the affairs of men for
collective benefits
and welfare has also helped in strengthening the quest for order.
The enlightenment philosophers such as Thomas Hobbes, J.J.
Rousseau, Mon-
tesquieu and others helped to concretize the relationship
between the state and the
civil society under the notion of “social contract” (Appadorai,
1975; Laskar, 2013;
Mukherjee & Ramaswamy, 2007; Sabine & Thorson, 1973). The
social contract
theory, as read from the works of Plamenatz (1966), was based
on the notion that
men had originally created the state by means of a social
contract to which each
individual had consented. The state, according to the social
contract theory, was
created by a number of individuals who voluntarily entered into
a contract, the
terms of which provided a political authority. As a voluntary
association, however, it
differed from any other because it provided for the exercise of
sovereignty, the su-
preme power to control by coercive means, if need be, the
conduct of its members.
The political obligation to submit to that authority is binding
upon the individuals
for the very reason that they voluntarily accepted it (Deng 2010;
Laskar, 2013;
Nbete, 2012).

The idea of a “social contract” presupposes a situation whereby
the state and
the civil society have a “mutual” and “reciprocal” relationship.
The civil society
submits their individual freedom and liberty to the state, while
the state offers
38
protection. Essentially, as long as the civil society remains
committed to the state,
the state offers protection from every form of arbitrariness. This
mutual respect for
the roles of each other helps in sustaining the contract.
In modern society, the idea of contractual relationship can be
subsumed under
the wellbeing of the state and welfare of the citizenry (Nbete,
2012). Smith (as cited
in Appadorai, 1975), identifies three purposes of the state as
follows: the duty of
protecting society from the violence and invasion of other
independent societies;
the duty of protecting subjects from injustice, that is, the duty
of enabling a system
of justice; and the duty of erecting and maintaining certain
public works and pub-
lic institutions (Turan, 2010). Laski (1967) sees the state not as
an end itself, but

merely as the means to an end. It exists to enable the majority
of men to realize
social good on the largest possible scale. The state is a means to
the enrichment
of individual personality. It exists to enable men, at least, to
realize the best in
themselves. According to Laski (1967), therefore, men can be
enabled to realize
the best in themselves only if the state provides rights, such as
the right to work,
to education, to basic freedoms –speech, press, association, and
religion– to vote,
and to stand as candidate for election.
The implication of the assertions above, therefore, is that all
states are expected
to perform said functions, and to the extent that a state does not
effectively carry
out the expected functions, that state is seen as having failed in
its own part of the
social contract. As such, the citizens have a moral right to
withdraw their loyalty to
the dictates of the social contract. To what extent, therefore, is
the social contract
valid in Nigeria? Is the Nigerian state not failing in performing
its own part of the
contract? How has this situation affected the democratization
process in Nigeria?
Do the Nigerian people even see themselves as part of the state?
Do they see the
state as their own? These are the questions begging for answers
in this paper. Above
all, the issue of poverty is viewed by the authors as a fallout of
the social contract
between state and society and, therefore, constitutes an
impediment to Nigeria’s

democratization project.
In order to achieve the objectives set for this paper, we advance
the discourse
that democracy is a system of government that exists in line
with the dictates of
the social contract between state and society. However, we
argue that the apparent
collapse of the contractual relationship between the state and
society in Nigeria is
what has led to different vices experienced within the polity,
which has impeded
the democratization process and these unfavorable tendencies
do not promote
sustainable development in Nigeria. Addressing the issue of the
social contract
the Social Contract
39
between state and society in Nigeria will go a long way in re-
enacting the values
and demands of the contract in the minds of Nigerians for them
to work towards
the wellbeing of the state and their own welfare.
Democracy and the social contract: The synergy
Democracy does not lend itself to a universal definition. It is a
broad concept used

generally to refer to particular ways in which relations are
organized between
those who govern and those who are being governed (Diamond,
1990; Schmidt,
2002, p. 147; Schmitter & Karl, 1991, p. 4). The mark of
democratic regimes is
“government of the people, by the people (or elected
representatives of the peo-
ple), and for the people” (Lincoln, 1958). Democracy is a
system of government
that promotes majority rule; one in which citizens determine,
through elections,
who become their leaders.
Barry (1981) opined that the term democracy has been used in a
variety of
contexts and this is why people talk about “liberal democracy,”
“social democra-
cy,” “totalitarian democracy,” and “industrial democracy” in an
attempt to express
a favorable attitude towards a political regime or to highlight
certain features of
that regime, which are considered to be virtuous. One of such
important fea-
tures of democratic rule, which makes it to be considered ideal,
is that individuals
are allowed to participate in government in the way they
contribute to public
affairs, hold political offices, criticize government actions, and
influence the de-
cision-making process of government. This is why every
government wants to be
called democratic and countries want to be seen as practicing a
democratic system
of government. For instance, the adjective “liberal” is added to
show the emphasis

of democracy on social justice, political liberties, and popular
or public partici-
pation in governmental affairs (Bollen, 1993; Venter, 2009, p.
28). The elements
of liberal democracy can be enumerated, but essentially a
liberal democracy does
not entail only elections at particular intervals but also the rule
of law, individual
rights and freedoms, constitutional checks and balances, and
transparency and
accountability of political officials (Leon, 2010, p. 5).
On the other hand, Omitola (2003) views democracy as a system
of government
that possesses an internal mechanism through which differences
and conflicts
among individuals and groups are resolved without degenerating
into violent cri-
ses. It is argued that in a truly democratic society, government
holds power in
40
confidence for the people (Diamond, 1990). Democracy in
Shively’s (1997) terms
is a two-way traffic. Hence, the citizens must be given the
political opportunities
to exercise their authority over the government while the
government must also
be accessible to them through their representatives. This is the

situation in a truly
democratic state, and a state where this is not obtainable is not
truly democratic.
For the people to participate meaningfully in a democratic
government, they must
be well informed or carried along by the government.
Instructively, therefore, the
ideas enunciated by the social contract theory are implied in
democracy (Osaghae,
1998; Osaghae 2006). A common feature of a truly democratic
society, as observed
from the above explanations, is popular participation of the
people in the conduct
of public affairs. Such participation ensures that the state is
effective and functional,
since it evolved from within the society and derives its
existence and legitimacy from
society (Osaghae, 2006). Social contract connotes a form of
“reciprocal” relationship
between the state and society (Deng, 2010, pp. 1-7; Steward,
2002, pp. 342-345).
Society sees itself as part of the state and this creates in citizens
a sense of ownership,
belonging, and commitment towards participating in the affairs
of the state and con-
tributing to its transformation and development.
The idea of social contract is as old as man. From the account
of the biblical
Garden of Eden, God had a contractual relationship with man,
as Adam and Eve
were expected to take care of the garden from where they were
fed. However, the
contractual relationship broke down as Adam and Eve ate the
forbidden fruit with
punitive measures against man (Genesis, chapters 2 and 3, Holy

Bible, Revised
Standard Version, 1971). In a similar vein, Thomas Hobbes,
Jean Jacques Rous-
seau, Montesquieu, and others referred to as theorists of the
enlightenment, also
emphasized in their works that the emergence of the state could
be linked to the
establishment of the social contract between the state and the
people, with duties
and obligations bestowed on both parties. This contract was
entered into by men
who, before this time lived in a state of nature (Mukherjee &
Ramaswamy, 2007;
Nbete, 2012).
In the state of nature, individuals enjoyed complete liberty,
including a natural
right to everything even to one another’s bodies. The natural
laws, considered as
treaties of peace, were dictates of reason. Since the first law of
nature enjoined
individuals to seek peace, the only way to attain it was through
a covenant leading
to the establishment of a state. Individuals surrendered all their
powers through
a contract to a third party, who was not a party to the contract
but nevertheless
received all the powers that were surrendered. Each individual,
by consenting to a
the Social Contract

41
set of rules, guaranteed basic equality with every other member,
meaning that no
one possessed more rights than another. The sovereign must
treat all the individ-
uals equally in matters of justice and levying taxes (Appadorai,
1975; Laskar, 2013;
Mukherjee & Ramaswamy, 2007; Sabine & Thorson, 1973).
Locke (as cited in Mukherjee & Ramaswamy, 2007), adopting
the technique
of social contract, explained that legitimate political authority
was derived from
the consent of the people, which could be withdrawn when the
freedom of the
individual was violated or curtailed. Describing the
characteristics of a good state,
Locke said that the state existed for the people who formed it
and not vice versa.
It had to be based on the consent of the people subject to the
constitution and the
rule of law. It would be limited, since its powers were derived
from the people and
were held in trust. The state, by virtue of this social contract, is
responsible for the
safety and security of its citizens. The state is to promote happy
and virtuous life
for the citizenry, and if the state fails to provide these values, in
line with the social
contract, it does not deserve the loyalty and commitment of the
people (Laskar,
2013, pp. 6-7). The above scenario presents the social contract
as one of mutual
respect and reciprocal benefits.

The Nigerian state and the social contract
The ideas of the social contract (as enunciated in the previous
section) can be
applied in explaining the nature, workings, and problems of the
Nigerian state.
First, a point of agreement among scholars when discussing
issues about the Ni-
gerian state is that the state is a colonial creation, an imported
state which did
not evolve from civil society (Adefulu, 2001; Ake, 1996;
Olaitan, 2001; Osaghae,
1998). It emerged in 1914 with the amalgamation of the
northern and southern
protectorates by Frederick John Dealtry Lugard. The
illegitimate nature of the
colonial state did not result from the fact that it did not evolve
historically and log-
ically from the civil society on which it foisted, but from the
fact that its creation
was for the domination of society. There are scholars like
Oyovbaire (1984) who is
not even sure that that there is really a good usage of the
concept of the Nigerian
state. This scholar is of the view that the concept is one that is
yet to be developed
and appropriately characterized.
Instructively, different terms used to describe a state in Africa
such as Nigeria
include: colonial state (Mamdani, 2002, p. 506); soft and
ineffective (Osaghae,

42
2006); illegitimate (Akokpari, 2008, p. 90); facade states
(Mehler, 2005, p. 12); weak
(Jackson, 2002, p. 38); underdeveloped (Sørensen, 1997, p.
260); imported (Kawaba-
ta, 2006, p. 2); failed (Akokpari, 2008, p. 90), among others.
These negative words
are often used regarding discourses relating to the origin,
nature, character, and
more importantly, the workings of the state and its political and
socio-economic
challenges. Osaghae (1998) observes that the very existence of
the African state has
been questioned, as it is said to be fictitious and more recently,
described as failed
or collapsed.
The Nigerian state has failed to approximate what Young (1994)
refers to as
the “behavioral imperatives of a state” such as hegemony,
autonomy, security, le-
gitimation, revenue, and accumulation. The 1979 Constitution
of the Federal
Republic of Nigeria (which has been subsequently reviewed) in
its second chapter
–Fundamental Objectives and Directive Principles of State
Policy– made it clear
that “… sovereignty belongs to the people from who [sic]
government derives its
powers.” It went further to emphasize that “… the security and
welfare of the

people shall be the primary purpose of government and that
powers [sic] shall be
exercised in the interest and welfare of the majority.” The
question to ask however
is, to what extent has the welfare of the people been promoted?
Despite annual
budgetary allocations, education for all people has remained
elusive (Leke et al.,
2014). Healthcare facilities are out of reach for the majority in
terms of cost and
availability, and quality housing is a far cry from the desire of
many (APRM, 2008,
pp. 274-318); there are food shortages and unemployment is
prevalent across the
nation (Trading Economics, 2015). The culmination of all these
factors is poverty,
which has become the lot of the vast majority of Nigerians
(Jiboku & Jiboku, 2009)
despite the country’s vast natural and material resources and its
economic growth
rates over the years.
Nigeria’s economic growth rate was “8% from 1999 through
2003 and 7% from
2004 to 2009, respectively” (Japan International Cooperation
Agency (JICA), &
Mitsubishi UFJ Research and Consulting Co. Ltd., 2011, p. 2).
Its steady growth
rates have not translated into improved socio-economic
conditions for the people.
The poverty rate in Nigeria, which currently is above 80%,
compared to previous
rates, shows that poverty reduction has remained a challenge.
Table 1 and figure 1
reflect data obtained from a General Household Survey (GHS)
and those of the

Harmonized Nigerian Living Standard Survey (HNLSS).
Table 1 and figure 1 reveal regional disparities and higher
levels of poverty
in the north compared to the south. In essence, the contract
between the state
the Social Contract
43
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44

Figure 1. Number of people who live in poverty - Nigeria
and the people has turned out to be an unjust one. While those
in governmental
authority and power enjoy affluence and have remained
indifferent to provision
of social amenities, the majority of the people have remained
poor with continual
deprivation of quality of life. In the main instance, basic needs
of life are taken
out of reach for most people under the guise of privatization.
The effect is the loss
of interest by the people in the affairs of the state. The
argument in this paper is
that poverty is a salient issue that affects the democratization
process in Nigeria.
It has remained persistent despite different policy measures
embarked upon by
successive Nigerian governments.
Source: Adapted from World Bank, IBRD-IDA 2014. Nigeria
Economic Report No. 2. July 2014. 18.
No
rth
C
en
tra
l
No
rth

E
as
t
No
rth
w
es
t
So
ut
h
Ea
st
So
ut
h
So
ut
h
So
ut
h
W

es
t
No
rth
C
en
tra
l
No
rth
E
as
t
No
rth
w
es
t
So
ut
h
Ea
st

So
ut
h
So
ut
h
So
ut
h
W
es
t2010/2011 2012/2013
20,000
15,000
10,000
5,000
0
60,000
40,000
20,000
0

00
0
In
di
vi
du
al
s
00
0
In
di
vi
du
al
s
Number of poor in thousand individuals
National by Zones
2010/2011 2012/2013
the Social Contract

45
Democracy and poverty in Nigeria:
A failure of the social contract?
The story of democracy in Nigeria is a sad one, as democratic
experiments in the
first and second republics ended eventually in coup d’états. The
attempted third
republic equally collapsed under invidious forces that
surrounded the annulment
of the June 12, 1993 presidential election in Nigeria (Tobi,
2001). Nigeria returned
to democratic rule in 1999 with the swearing in of the Olusegun
Obasanjo ad-
ministration after several years of military rule. This act marked
the beginning
of democratization as people saw the reality of democracy,
which had eluded the
country for a long time (APRM, 2008). With this newfound
freedom, different
groups such as the Odua People’s Congress (OPC), the Egbesu,
Bakassi Boys,
Arewa People’s Congress, and several groups from the Niger
Delta started alleging
one form or another of marginalization with a clamor for
redress. This cry of mar-
ginalization, parochial sentiments, and polemic responses and
agitations all stem
from the collapse or failure of the social contract with the
people and the endemic
poverty in the country in the midst of vast resources and wealth.
While Nigeria is
confronted with the Niger Delta crisis; inequality (the widening
gap between the

rich and the poor); the issue of providing for the needs of its
growing population
and addressing socio-economic challenges such as
unemployment and poverty;
lack of infrastructures, among other issues (APRM, 2008), the
argument in this
paper is that poverty has affected Nigeria’s democratization
process.
In Nigeria, the mass poverty of the people, according to
Mamman (2002), can
be associated with social, economic, political, ecological, and
cultural policies
and processes all of which have interlinks. Ravellion and Bidani
(1994) look at
poverty as the inability to have command over basic needs of
life such as clothing,
food, shelter, among other things. It should be noted that the
inability of individ-
uals to access these basic needs has negative consequences on
their physical and
socio-psychological wellbeing. Jhingan (2002), on his own part,
describes poverty
with examples. He illustrates his argument with the inability of
a boy longing for
education but unable to get it because his parents cannot pay for
it; the grief of par-
ents who watch a child die of preventable childhood diseases
because they cannot
afford medical care. The United Nations sees poverty from the
perspective of peo-
ple living on less than one dollar ($1) per day (UNESCO, 2017).
Poverty is a form
of powerlessness that touches the social, political, and
psychological well-being of
individuals. Socially, people who live in poverty lack access to

resources than can
46
empower them for good livelihood; politically, they
lack understanding of the political system and thus
do not see themselves in the process as a stakehold-
er; psychologically, the individuals’ self-worth and
ability to have standpoint to assess social situations
is lost so that they become passive and submissive.
People who live in poverty are withdrawn and lack
the self-esteem necessary to analyze and evaluate
issues (World Development Report, 2000/1). By in-
ternational standards, more than 50% of Nigerians
live in poverty (United Nations Development Pro-
gramme, 1998) and the situation has degenerated
to a precarious level rather than improving as the
National Bureau of Statistics computation of hu-
man development indices for the United Nations
Development Program (UNDP) Nigeria Human
Development Report 2016 indicated that 53.7% of
the population live in poverty (NBS, 2018). Nigeria
has been regrettably described as the poverty capital of the
world with an estimated
population of 87 million people in extreme poverty (Nigeria
overtakes India, 2018).
Among several reasons adduced for poverty are an exorbitant
cost of living as

a result of inflation, high rate of unemployment, government’s
failure to provide
basic social amenities, ill-health, illiteracy, and low level of
education (Abimbola,
Orembi & Adekeye, 2005; Ajakaiye & Olomola, 2003; Obadan,
1997; Odumosu
et al., 2003). From these explanations, it is instructive that
poverty deprives people
from the basic needs of life and the results are high level of
illiteracy, malnour-
ishment, hunger, poor health, among others. People in
conditions of poverty also
live in environmentally degraded areas. The consequences of
this, is socio-political
and economic marginalization with direct consequences for
democratization and
development, bearing in mind the discourse that about 67
million of Nigeria’s
population, as reported in 1996, live below the poverty line
(Mamman, 2002). The
situation has degenerated to an estimated 87% of the
population, making Nigeria
the poverty capital of the world (Nigeria overtakes India, 2018).
Thus, this paper
argues that poverty is one of the main impediments to
democratization in Nigeria.
Democracy has been defined in the previous sections of this
paper as “govern-
ment of the people, by the people, and for the people” (Abraham
Lincoln, cited
“People in
conditions of
poverty also live in
environmentally

degraded areas.
The consequences
of this, is socio-
political and
economic
marginalization
with direct
consequences for
democratization
and development”.
the Social Contract
47
in Ake, 1992). It is a type of government that recognizes that
human beings rep-
resent the foundation for the development of any society. Then,
how can a high
proportion of people who live in poverty, socially ill-equipped,
politically and eco-
nomically displaced, be in the forefront of attempts at
democratization in Nigeria?
The Nigerian state, which ideally should provide the basic
facilities for quality of
life of its citizens and the enabling environment for the
realization of individuals’
potentials, is weak in performing its responsibilities. For
instance, social security
to ameliorate the problems associated with poverty as a result of
unemployment is

nonexistent (APRM, 2008). Gratuity and pension are not paid to
those who have
spent active part of their working lives in serving the nation.
These people have
been frustrated and have retrogressed into penury and need,
with some reported
dead while on queues to collect such stipends (Adeniji,
Akinnusi, Falola & Ohu-
nakin, 2017).
In the face of all these persisting challenges, in 1988, the state
nevertheless em-
barked on the policy of privatization and commercialization of
public utilities and
companies with an adverse effect on labor, compounding the
unemployment prob-
lem and poverty (Onuoha 2003, pp. 16-17). The attempt to
attain basic livelihood in
the face of these daunting problems have led individuals to
devise different means
for survival. The concern is that people who live in poverty
need food, shelter, and
clothing, among other things, which have to be procured at the
expense of the larger
society. Another point, which needs to be stressed, is that the
extended family sys-
tem in Africa increases the dependency ratio. On the average,
an employed person
is not only responsible for his immediate family; he also has his
aged parents and
extended family members to cater for from the same salary he
receives (National
Research Council, 2006). This takes the person to the poverty
level. If the state lived
up to its task of providing for the welfare of all citizens, the
dependency ratio and

its multiplier effect on poverty would have been reduced.
Therefore, poverty is one
of the major retrogressing factors for development in Nigeria.
Considering the situation of the people who live in poverty in
Nigeria and the
different dimensions of their poverty, the authors argue that
these people do not
see themselves as part of the democratization process in the
country. The social
contract that would have given them a sense of belonging in the
state has failed.
Therefore, how would the democratization process in Nigeria be
genuine, free,
and fair? Among the reasons cited by Ojofeitimi (1992) for the
failure of democra-
cy in Nigeria is the attitudinal disposition of Nigerians, that is,
a general lack of
commitment and political will to nurture a democratic culture.
A synthesis of the
48
previous reasons clearly explains the rigging of elections,
opposition thuggery, co-
rruption, victimization, and other violent acts, which
characterized Nigeria’s first,
second, and third republics. In addition, the dismal performance
of the Nigerian
economy manifested in the high rate of unemployment, high

external debt, high
cost of living, and poverty, has not allowed democracy to
flourish in Nigeria. The
real issue is that democracy cannot thrive in a situation where
most citizens lack
the basic needs of life.
Ogunsanwo (1994) also identifies the level of political
awareness as a major
factor explaining the failure of democracy in Nigeria. Low level
of political aware-
ness in Nigeria is a product of many variables such as
despondency emanating
from disillusionment arising from the dismal performance of
previous regimes,
low literacy level, and poverty. This low level of political
awareness in the words
of Ogunsanwo (1994) undermines democratic rule as the
enthronement of ethnic
particularism and chauvinism and the considerations of crass
material benefit tend
to derail values like accountability, merit, and dedicated hard
work on the part
of political leaders. These would otherwise have
sharpened the democratic ethos. For instance, the
polemic responses of some segments of the Nigeri-
an society to the health and death of late president
Umaru Musa Yar’Adua would not have come up if
basic needs were available to all. The issue, about
the then vice president Goodluck Ebele Azikiwe
Jonathan could only act “for” and not “as,” (Dai-
ly Post Editorial, 13 December, 2011) would have
been meaningless if not for poverty and the belief
that a president from a particular area would pro-
tect the interest of the people better. Likewise, the

agitations by different militia groups threatening
Nigeria with internal terrorism would not have
been experienced if basic needs of life were within
the reach of many Nigerians. The post-election vi-
olence witnessed in parts of Nigeria, particularly in
the northern area, which resulted in the killing of
young people and especially of members of the Na-
tional Youth Service Corps, was partly borne out of
the feeling that these youths helped in prolonging
“The dismal
performance of the
Nigerian economy
manifested in
the high rate of
unemployment,
high external debt,
high cost of living,
and poverty, has not
allowed democracy
to flourish in
Nigeria. The
real issue is that
democracy cannot
thrive in a situation
where most citizens
lack the basic needs
of life”.
the Social Contract

49
the people’s poverty conditions as the winners, particularly for
the office of the pres-
ident did not emerge from within the northern zones. Also, two
more noteworthy
issues are the terrorist activities of the Boko Haram Sect and the
kidnappings in
the Niger Delta, especially of expatriates. In the first case, the
issue of concern is
that if the youth were to be gainfully employed, they would be
less prone to taking
actions that could destabilize Nigeria’s democratization process.
In the second
case, the people kidnapped work in the oil sector in Nigeria and
the demand for
ransom has become a big business in the region. This is an
indictment on Nigerian
democracy within the international community and has negative
consequences
on the inflow of investments needed for development.
Essentially, it is the poor in the society that are manipulated,
induced, and used
by the elites for all forms of electoral malpractices and riggings
during elections as
well as the post-electoral violence witnessed in parts of the
country. People who live
in poverty become withdrawn and passive and lack the self-
esteem necessary to an-
alyze and evaluate issues (UNESCO, 2017). This makes them
likely to accept the
status-quo and hardly question the position of those in
authority. The April 2007
gubernatorial and state houses of assembly elections represent
good cases to cite

in this direction. Most of the people who live in poverty and are
illiterate are easily
deceived by politicians. As such, the result is that the wrong
candidates who do not
have the interests of the masses in mind are elected into public
offices and embark
on self-centered programs to the detriment of society. In recent
time, politicians are
rife with involvement in vote-buying allegations among people,
who find it difficult
to resist being induced with small measures of rice, household
utilities, and money
because of the high level of poverty. The outcomes of all these
is bad governance;
corruption; embezzlement of public funds; negation of
development programs on
education, health, housing; creation of employment that will
positively touch the
lives of people living in poverty being pursued without vigor,
among others. The
ideals of democracy are hereafter defeated.
The way forward
Nigeria’s democratization process is facing many problems:
polemic responses to
national issues, ethnic militia, ethno-religious upsurges, land
and border crises,
kidnappings, and more recently, internal terrorism. These
problems are not insur-
mountable when there is the willpower to tackle them from the
roots rather than

50
beating around the bush. One way to achieve this is to address
the issue of poverty.
That is, urgently implementing programs and policies aimed at
poverty allevia-
tion. Nigeria is not lacking in terms of policy frameworks aimed
at eradicating
poverty, the challenge lies on the implementation of such
policies. For instance,
while development programs are formulated, the government
fails to demonstrate
the necessary political will to commit resources towards
implementation (APRM,
2008, pp. 258-259). Thus, the various poverty alleviation
measures put in place by
successive governments in Nigeria need to be strengthened to
tackle the menace
of poverty. According to Ajakaiye and Olomola (2003), the
Human Development
Index (HDI) for Nigeria in 1998 was 0.391, which ranked it 142
out of the 174
countries surveyed. In addition, in the year 2000, the HDI score
for Nigeria was
0.439, which ranked the country at 154 out of the 174 countries
surveyed. The
situation has not significantly changed as the HDI report of
2016 was 0.530 and
for 2017, the HDI report was 0.532. Overall, Nigeria’s ranking
did not change from
position 157 out of the 189 countries sampled. In addition, table
1 and figure 1
presented in the previous section show that, as of 2014, the

poverty rate in Nigeria
had increased to 60% and in 2018, it increased to 87% of the
population, thus
making Nigeria the poverty capital of the world (Nigeria
overtakes India, 2018).
These data reveal that rather than abating, poverty is on the
increase.
The efforts of successive Nigerian governments aimed at
eradicating poverty,
which was the goal of the 1995 Copenhagen Denmark World
Summit for Social
Development and in which Nigeria participated, are
commendable especially the
National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy
(NEEDS). This
was to be pursued through:
a) Youth Empowerment Scheme (YES)
b) Rural Infrastructure Development Scheme (RIDS)
c) Social Welfare Services Scheme (SOWESS), and
d) Natural Resources Development and Conservation Scheme
(NRDCS)
a) The YES incorporates manpower training and development of
capacity; man-
datory internship (industrial training or practical industrial
training as part of
skill acquisition); and provision of credit lifeline for graduates
to take off their
businesses. These measures, the program envisages, would
propel entrepreneu-
rial development of the youth to be self-employed rather than
seeking for jobs
(Ewemade & Joy, 2015; McDonald, Iloanya & Okoye-Nebo,
2014; Ugwu, 2012).

the Social Contract
51
b) The RIDS is designed to tackle rural energy and power
supply, portable water
and irrigation as well as rural and urban transportation and
communication.
The idea is that the development of these infrastructures,
particularly in rural
areas, will reduce the rate of rural-urban migration and make
rural areas more
attractive (McDonald et al., 2014; Ugwu, 2012).
c) The SOWESS is intended to facilitate empowerment of
farmers and the pro-
vision of credit facilities for increased agricultural output and
by extension
improve the quality of life of farmers and rural dwellers.
d) The NRDCS is a scheme geared towards harnessing of
agricultural, water, and
mineral resources as well as conservation of land to make
agriculture more re-
sult oriented and attractive despite the threat of global warming
(Ugwu, 2012).
In the same dimension, the current Administration is also not
taking the issue
of poverty alleviation with levity, as existing measures on

poverty reduction are
being remodeled with more financial vigor under the National
Social Investment
Programmes (NSIP) such as the N-Power programs. These
programs are geared
towards skill and vocational trainings of the Nigerian youth.
The government is
of the view that the youth are the future of the nation.
Therefore, their skills and
knowledge need to be developed to make them the drivers of
economic growth
and social development that will be sustainable. Through the N-
Power Volun-
teer Corp, it is projected that unemployment and by extension
poverty will be
reduced with a massive deployment of 500,000 trained
graduates who will assist
to improve the inadequacies in public services such as
education, health sector,
among others.
The non-graduate empowerment aspect of N-Power includes N-
Build, which
is meant to train artisans for three months in different aspects of
vocational work
which includes building services, construction, built
environment services, util-
ities, and automotive. With the acquisition of such skills, those
trained could
become self-employed and also train others under the form of
the apprenticeship
system. It is anticipated that the N-Power build of accelerated
skill acquisition and
certification will provide employment for 75,000 youth.
In addition to the N-Power initiative, the micro-credit scheme

known as Tra-
der-Moni is also another avenue for alleviating poverty through
the provision of
credits to petty traders through their associations without
collateral. It is projected
that two million small-scale traders will be empowered though
the scheme and
it also allows for increases in the credit accessible to each
trader on established
52
proof of profitable use of the money demonstrated by regular
re-payment (Federal
Government of Nigeria, n.d.).
These policy measures along with the Amnesty Program,
through which youth
from the Niger Delta are being empowered with relevant skills
in order to stop
vandalism of oil facilities and installations in the area, should
be re-invigorated
with more funding to help ensure the objective of poverty
eradication. With sin-
cere efforts at poverty alleviation and empowerment of the
youth, there will be
a reduced number of people available for use to foment trouble
and create crises
within the polity body. Tackling head on the issue of poverty
will go a long way in

re-enacting the validity of the social contract in the minds of
men, thereby making
the democratization process an institution for all devoid of
skepticism, doubts, and
the mutual suspicion that hitherto have devastated the state and
civil society rela-
tionship. Thus, the consolidation of Nigeria’s democracy will
lead to establishment
of institutions and structures that are sustainable and devoid of
crises.
Conclusion
From the different dimensions of poverty has been defined
through, we see it is a
vicious circle that keeps people living in such condition in a
state of destitution and
disillusionment. Poverty affects many aspects of human
conditions, which definitely
include individuals’ participation and contribution to
governance and democratiza-
tion in any polity. The western world has been able to make so
much advancement
in economic, social, and political terms because poverty has
been ameliorated to a
very low level as a result of the adoption of several policies,
which are non-existent in
most developing countries, particularly Nigeria. The precarious
situation in Nigeria
calls for concerted efforts aimed at redressing this detrimental
trend. The previous
efforts of government at poverty alleviation, as enumerated
earlier, are commend-
able and should be strengthened. In addition to the various
programs put in place,
the government should target the implementation of the United

Nation’s Sustain-
able Development Goals regarding poverty reduction in Nigeria.
Examining the various issues discussed in this paper, it is
possible to identify
that events that are possible in a political system explain the
character of that
system. Many of the unfavorable trends occurring in Nigeria’s
body polity are
the result of the failure of the social contract between the state
and society. It is
therefore possible to make inferences about the future of the
Nigerian state, which
the Social Contract
53
is failing to function adequately as a modern state and not
implementing policies
that are in line with the needs of its citizenry. Despite its
“illegitimate” nature,
successive Nigerian governments have not yet been able to
bridge the wide gap
between the state and society and achieve national integration.
Rather, the state
has been indifferent to social welfare and rights of the citizenry.
The citizens, in
the face of all these issues, have withdrawn their loyalty to the
state and this has
adversely affected the democratization process in Nigeria.

There is a need to pay serious attention to the issue of nation
building and
re-conceptualizing the role of the civil society towards
achieving this objective. The
political leadership should be committed to the implementation
of policies, espe-
cially as it affects the well-being of the majority of the people.
On the other hand, the
citizenry should be responsive and there should be conscious
change in attitudes.
These will go a long way towards enhancing democratic
consolidation in Nigeria.
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Visions of political philosophy 97
Visions of polit ical ph i losophy
i n t h e ‘Commentary on Ar istot le’s
Polit ics’
by Michael of Eph esus
Ilias Vavouras
D o c t o r o f P h i l o s o p h y ,
A r i s t o t l e U n i v e r s i t y o f T h e s s a l o n i k i
If we want to deal with political philosophy in Byzantium, and
specifically with
Aristotelian political philosophy, we cannot ignore the
fragmentary commentary on
Aristotle’s Politics by Michael of Ephesus (1059–1129). In this
study, the Byzantine
thinker addressed the basic problems of Aristotelian thought
and political philo-
sophy in general, attempting to interpret basic directions of
Aristotelian political
philosophy, but also to integrate them into the political model

of the Byzantine
Empire.
The ruler as a simulation of the divine mind
A structural parameter of Michael’s thought is the perception of
political gov-
ernance as a simulation of divine dominance in the universe.
This idea is not
new but is inherited from the ancient Greek tradition and
specifically from the
Pythagoreans. According to the Pythagoreans, the
communication between the
parties of a political community must be modelled on the
communication between
the different parts of the universe. The universe, however, was
not created acciden-
I l i a s Vav o u r a s98
tally, but it was a product of rational design. The divine creator
constructed the
world and used its parts in order and rationality to achieve
harmonious arrangement
and seemliness. The creator and ruler of the universe is the
rational god, who excels

in his creation; having full knowledge of its essence and
purpose, he is the cause and
purpose of everything. In an absolute analogy, the political
governor—since he first
imitates the creator himself and establishes order and harmony
within his individual
nature, having attained self-knowledge of the essence and
purpose of the man and
becoming virtuous himself among the other political parts of the
political entity—
must properly assemble the political whole to give it a
seemliness1 and harmonious
arrangement that is analogous to the universe.2 This image of
the political governor
as an imitator of the divine ruler of the universe is used by
Michael to establish the
superiority of the emperor in virtue in relation to his own
citizens, thus linking
political and ecclesiastical power. However, Michael’s
interpretation attempts to rely
on an Aristotelian basis,3 as it adopts Aristotle’s interpretation
of the natural sover-
eignty of the rational part over the irrational.4 Michael carries
this interpretation

into the political field by identifying the governor with the
rational part.
The concept of natural slavery
Paradoxically, the notion of political sovereignty as an
imitation of the divine
ruler is founded in Aristotle’s well-known view of natural
slavery. The expression
slave by nature (φύσει δοῦλον) is a conspicuous Aristotelian
assumption of natural
slavery based on the difference in natural abilities between
human beings and in
the political union of people into the background of natural
bliss-integration.5 The
relationship between their sovereignty and the subordination of
the other which
1 C.f., Michael of Ephesus, Commentary on Aristotle Politics,
293 (Aristotelis Politica, ed. Otto Immisch
[Leipzig, 1929], 293–327), (Aristotle, Politics, 1252b, 6).
2 C.f., Joannes Stobaeus, Anthology, Ὑποθῆκαι Περὶ βασιλείας
ΜΗ΄, 61–66, Διωτογένεος Πυθαγορείου
ἐκ τοῦ Περὶ βασιλείας (περ. 400 π.Χ.): βασιλέως ὥσπερ θεῶ ἐν
τῷ κόσμῳ ὧ ἁγεμών τε καὶ προστάτας ἐντί͵
ξυνᾷ μὲν τὸ ποτὶ μίαν ἀρχάν τε καὶ ἁγεμονίαν τὸ ὅλον
ξυναρμόσθαι͵ καθ΄ ἕκαστον δὲ τὸ καὶ τὰ κατὰ μέρος
ποττὰν αὐτὰν ἁρμονίαν τε καὶ ἁγεμονίαν συναρμόζεσθαι.

3 C.f., Aristotle, Politics, 1284a. 9–15: Ἀδικήσονται γὰρ
ἀξιούμενοι τῶν ἴσων͵ ἄνισοι τοσοῦτον κατ΄
ἀρετὴν ὄντες καὶ τὴν πολιτικὴν δύναμιν· ὥσπερ γὰρ θεὸν ἐν
ἀνθρώποις εἰκὸς εἶναι τὸν τοιοῦτον. Ὅθεν δῆλον
ὅτι καὶ τὴν νομοθεσίαν ἀναγκαῖον εἶναι περὶ τοὺς ἴσους καὶ τῷ
γένει καὶ τῇ δυνάμει͵ κατὰ δὲ τῶν τοιούτων
οὐκ ἔστι νόμος· αὐτοὶ γάρ εἰσι νόμος. Καὶ γὰρ γελοῖος ἂν εἴη
νομοθετεῖν τις πειρώμενος κατ΄ αὐτῶν.
4 Aristotle, Politics, 1252a: τὸ μὲν γὰρ δυνάμενον τῇ διανοίᾳ
προορᾶν ἄρχον φύσει καὶ δεσπόζον φύσει͵
τὸ δὲ δυνάμενον [ταῦτα] τῷ σώματι πονεῖν ἀρχόμενον καὶ φύσει
δοῦλον. ‘For that which can foresee by
the exercise of mind is by nature intended to be lord and
master, and that which can with its body give
effect to such foresight is a subject, and by nature a slave’. C.f.,
Joannes Stobaeus, Anthology, Περὶ Πολιτείας,
Ἀρχύτα Πυθαγορείου ἐκ τοῦ Περὶ νόμου καὶ δικαιοσύνης, ΜΓ΄,
132. 22: συνείρονται μὲν γὰρ ταὶ πράξιες
ἐκ τοῦ ἄρχειν καὶ τοῦ ἄρχεσθαι καὶ τρί τον ἐκ τοῦ κρατεῖν. Τὸ
μὲν οὖν ἄρχεν τῶ κρείσσονος οἰκῇον͵ τὸ δ΄
ἄρχεσθαι τῶ χερῄονος͵ τὸ δὲ κρατὲν ἀμφοτέρων· ἄρχει μὲν γὰρ
τὸ λόγον ἔχον τᾶς ψυχᾶς͵ ἄρχεται δὲ τὸ
ἄλογον͵ κρατοῦντι δὲ τῶν παθέων ἀμφότερα. Γίνεται γὰρ ἐκ τᾶς
ἑκατέρων συναρμογᾶς ἀρετά. C.f. Michael
of Ephesus, Commentary on Aristotle Politics, 293 (Aristotelis
Politica, ed. Otto Immisch [Leipzig, 1929],
293–327), (Aristotle, Politics, 1252b, 6): τὸ φύσει ἄρχον ἤτοι
τὸν νοῦν.
5 Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, 1177a.8.

takes place in the context of civil society is seen by Aristotle as
evident and non-ne-
gotiable; there can be no political entity without the relations of
sovereignty and
subordination that underpin the concept of justice,6 which is the
cornerstone, the
foundation of the human political road towards natural bliss.
Michael uses the Aristotelian terms tool and acquirement
(ὄργανον-κτῆμα) to
establish his position on power relations within the political
community. The tool
is considered as a means of producing other things and is
defined as a creative tool
(ποιητικὸν ὄργανον), while the acquirement is a simple tool and
defined as a practical
tool (πρακτικόν ὄργανον).7 The slave by nature is also a
practical and creative tool in
his relationship with his master.8 When subordinate to the
master in a direct way,
he is a practical tool. This domination resembles the dominance
of the soul over the
body. Just as the soul does what it wants to the body, so the
master does whatever he
wants to the slave. The soul uses the body as a tool and an

acquirement. The body as
an acquirement is nothing but a tool of the soul. On the
contrary, when a slave is a
creative tool, he serves the master by executing orders or
creating something without
the ability of mental processing.9 It could be said that the
relationship between the
governor and the subject parallels for Michael the relationship
between master and
slave with the Aristotelian justification of the natural
superiority of the rational over
the irrational part. From this point of view, the subjugated,
either as a slave or as a
subject, is a living acquirement of the mentally superior
governor-master. Indeed,
the relationship of sovereignty and subordination is inevitable
by nature because
there cannot be a political society consisting only of sovereigns
or only of subjects.
The necessity of nature is inevitable.
Here, Michael, in order to be understood, uses another
Aristotelian distinction
between mind (νοῦς) and appetition (ὄρεξις). Appetition is
presented in three forms:

as thymic, as desire, and as will.10 Appetition as a desire for
pleasure is an irrational
urge of the soul inherent in all living beings. The thymic, also
inherent in all living
beings, is an instinctive urge to punish another being for
something evil that has
come from it. On the contrary, appetition as will exists only in
man. The appetition of
a virtuous man with the function of rational judgment, with the
function of mind, is
transformed to will.11 This ability of the mind to dominate the
appetition defines the
6 Aristotle, Politics, 1253a.37.
7 Σωτηρία Τριαντάρη, Οι πολιτικές αντιλήψεις των Βυζαντινών
διανοητών (Αθήνα: Ηρόδοτος, 2002),
61.
8 Michael of Ephesus, Commentary on Aristotle Politics
(1254a), 293–94: ὀ δοῦλος ποτὲ μὲν πρακτικὸν
ὄργανον ῥηθήσεται, óτὲ δὲ ποιητικόν.
(1254a), 294: Φύσει δοῦλος ἐστιν ὁ μὴ διορατικὸς
τῶν πρακτέων δι’ ἀφυΐαν ἀλλ’ ὑπηρετικός.
(1254b), 294: Ἥ ὄρεξις ἀναιρεῖται εἰς θυμὸν
καὶ ἐπιθυμίαν καὶ βούλησιν.

(1254b), 294: Τῶν ἀγαθῶν ὀρεξις μετὰ κρίσεως
γινομένη βουλὴ καλεῖται.
will and, by extension, the ability to engage in political or royal
science.12 It is worth
noting that Michael argues that not all people can attain the
right will, an essential
requirement for political science. Not everyone can impose the
dominance of ra-
tionalism on the desperate appetition of desires. This parameter
also separates the
majority decisions of the parliament from the decisions of a real
political scientist.
The parliament or the people decide and do anything they like
with everything they
please, while the political scientist decides and acts in
accordance with the correct-
ness that stems from the absolute dominance of rationalism over
irrational impulses.
The political scientist and the mind can make good use of the
will, while the parlia-

ment or the people cannot, and this is a fundamental difference
(in the good use of
the will by the political scientist and by the parliament) in
Michael’s thought.13
The sovereign and the subjects
Thus, Michael provides four arguments detailing the difference
between the
sovereign and the subjects:
1) In nature there are relations of sovereignty and
subordination. This re-
lationship validates the view of natural slavery; there are
masters by nature
and slaves by nature. The slaves by nature have the function of
a living tool
(ἐμψυχον ὄργανον) for their masters. The difference between
sovereign and
subject, master and slave, is not conventional or arbitrary, but is
based on the
difference in the rational ability of every human being.
2) The organic use of the slave by the master or of the subject
by the sovereign
resembles the sovereignty of the soul over the body. The slave-
subject is

either a means of producing other things (creative tool)—for
example, the
hands construct/create something by obedience to cognitive
commands
without themselves having the ability to think—or a simple
utilitarian tool
(practical tool)—such as a hammer. The same is true in the case
of civil gov-
ernance, in which the rationalists have a commander position,
while those
who cannot adequately develop their rational ability are
utilitarian tools of
the government authority.
3) Within the human organism, there are the appetition and the
mind. The
blind sovereignty of the appetition to the mind is an animal
process rather
than a human process. Those who can impose the rationality of
sovereignty
on the irrational appetition of desires are proclaimed by Michael
as sover-
eigns, while those who are driven by their desires through
neglecting their

(1254b), 294: ἄρχει ὁ νοῦς τῆς ὀρέξεως
βασιλικὴν καὶ πολιτικήν. C.f., Katerina Ierodiakonou, ‘Some
Observations on Michael of Ephesus’ Com-
ments on Nicomachean Ethics X’, in Medieval Greek
Commentaries on the Nicomachean Ethics, eds Charles
Barber and David Jenkins (Leiden: Brill, 2009), 185–202.
(1254b), 294: Διαφέρει δὲ ὅτι ὁ μὲν βασιλεὺς
καὶ ὁ νοῦς δύνανται βουλεύεσθαι ἐκεῖνα δὲ οὒ.
rational ability are subjects. Indeed, Michael defines political
science as the
sovereignty of rationality over appetition within the human
soul. The real
possibility of the will belongs to the rationalist man. Michael
expresses his
reservations about whether it is possible to have proper
consultation in a
democratic assembly, considering that political science can only
be found in
very few individuals.
4) Michael then draws another argument, this time not from
Aristotelian
but from Platonic philosophy (which Aristotle14 also attempts

to overturn).
He refers to the argument of social mobility in Plato’s Republic
to prove that
the city is not a single entity but is divided into subjects by the
sovereigns
because of their difference in virtue. According to the Platonic
argument,
the class of guardians must communicate with the class of
creators so that
there is unity in the city. If there was no communication
between the social
classes, we could not talk about a city but about two or more.
The argument
of social mobility validates, according to Plato, this position of
political unity
through the demotion to the class of creators those of the
guardians’ children
who do not respond adequately to educational processes. On the
contrary,
the children of creators demonstrating remarkable skills in
educational
processes are promoted to the upper class of guardians, where
there is also
a reproductive community (the erotic companions of the

guardians in the
Platonic State are determined by the dominant class of
philosophers-kings
at a directed festival. The choice of erotic companions is based
on the in-
dividual nature of the guardians). This mobility among members
of civil
society maintains its unity and certifies that it is a common
political organ-
isation. The whole city is common to Plato, whether we refer to
guards or
creators, the whole city is governed by unity, the city is a
common natural
and political organisation. However, Michael disputes the unity
of the city as
portrayed in the Platonic view. In fact, he notes that there are
two opposing
political parties within the city. The separation of the city into
two parts is
ratified by the enforcement of justice only in one place and not
in both. The
class of creators is subject to a justice process for the injustices
committed
by its members among themselves. On the other hand, there are

no judicial
proceedings in the class of the guardians because its members
excel in virtue
and rationality. There is no need for law enforcement in people
who excel
in virtue and have settled inside their souls through rationality
the idea of
justice, and thus never commit injustices.15 Consequently, civil
society is not
14 Aristotle, Politics, 1261a–b.
15 Michael of Ephesus, Commentary on Aristotle Politics,
(1261a) 297: κοινωνεῖν δὲ ἀλλήλοις ἀναγκαῖον
δι’ ἕν μέν, ὅτι δεῖ μίαν εἶναι τὴν πόλιν […]. Εἰ γὰρ τοῖς
γεωργοῖς καὶ τοῖς ἅλλοις ὑπάρχειν ἀνάγκη δίκας καὶ
ἐγκλήματα κατ’ ἀλλήλων, τοῖς δὲ φύλαξι διὰ τὴν παιδείαν μηδὲν
τούτων, πῶς οὐχ ὑπενάντιοι; ἐνάντιοι γάρ
πως οἱ δικαζόμενοι καὶ ἀπαίδευτοι τῶν μη δικαζομένων καὶ
παιπεδευμένων.
unified but consists of sovereigns and subjects according to the
difference
they have in virtue.16
Citizen and statesman

Aristotle states that the intellectual virtue of prudence
(φρόνησις) as a structur-
al catalyst of knowledge and the practice of political science is
the property of the
superior political man only, who is a political governor in the
principles of natural
right (i.e., the natural justice-order governing human nature and
the political
community. According to Aristotle, the distinctive feature of
the mind is the point
of differentiation between man and the other animals, but also
between men as
citizens or statesmen). The subjects do not have the virtue of
prudence, but they
participate in it through their consensual or coercive agreement
on legal provisions,
which are not active agents of prudence, but the reflection of
supreme governmen-
tal prudence as a true opinion (δόξα ἀληθής).17 True opinion
(δόξα ἀληθής) is not
a political science that can rationally prove its principles and
steadfastly direct the
will of the state towards the good human purpose of bliss,18 but
a declaration of faith

without reason in the blissful political venture of the ruling
prudence. This is the
essential difference between the concept of citizen and the
concept of the political
man-statesman,19 while prudence is the virtue that
differentiates the political man
from the ordinary citizen.20 The real political man differs from
the common citizen
in that he possesses the virtue of prudence, which thus becomes
the hallmark of the
political man. A real political man,21 through the virtue of
prudence, defines scienti-
fically rational rules of political virtue, in which ordinary
citizens voluntarily submit
to obedience to legal provisions by their uniform adherence to
the true political
opinion, which is not a rational prudence, but a mimetic
reflection of it.
Also, following the Aristotelian vision, Michael differentiates
the virtue of the
citizen from the virtue of the virtuous man, who is essentially
identified with the
political man. The virtuous or political man is the only one who
can rule—because

of the virtue of prudence, as Aristotle has told us—while the
virtuous citizen can
16 C.f., George Arabatzis, ‘Michael of Ephesus on the
Empirical Man, the Scientist and the Educated
Man (In Ethica Nicomachea X and In de Partibus Animalium
I)’, in Medieval Greek Commentaries on the
Nicomachean Ethics, eds Charles Barber and David Jenkins
(Leiden: Brill, 2009), 163–184.
17 Aristotle, Politics, 1277b.25–29: Ἡ δὲ φρόνησις ἄρχοντος
ἴδιος ἀρετὴ μόνη. τὰς γὰρ ἄλλας ἔοικεν
ἀναγκαῖον εἶναι κοινὰς καὶ τῶν ἀρχομένων καὶ τῶν ἀρχόντων͵
ἀρχομένου δέ γε οὐκ ἔστιν ἀρετὴ φρόνησις͵
ἀλλὰ δόξα ἀληθής.
18 Charles H. Kahn, ‘The Normative Structure of Aristotle’s
Politics’, in Günther Patzig, ed., Aristoteles’
‘Politik’ (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1990), 369–384.
19 Aristotle, Politics, 1275a.23: Πολίτης δ΄ ἁπλῶς οὐδενὶ τῶν
ἄλλων ὁρίζεται μᾶλλον ἢ τῷ μετέχειν
κρίσεως καὶ ἀρχῆς.
20 ἡ δὲ φρόνησις ἄρχοντος ἴδιος ἀρετὴ μόνη.
21 Terence H. Irwin, ‘Moral Science and Political Theory in
Aristotle’, History of Political Thought 6
(1985): 150–68.
lead and follow22 by participating in the governmental and
judicial processes of civil

society. In addition, Michael points out that the differentiation
of politicians and
citizens is not just about governance and subordination, but also
about the issue of
virtues. For example, the virtue of bravery exists both to the
ruler and to the ruled,
but in a different way.23
The virtue of justice
Michael attributes an important role to the virtue of justice for
the function-
ing of the city as well as for the formation of the individual’s
moral identity and
of the political man. At this point, a connection between
Platonic and Aristotelian
thought is attempted. From the beginning, Michael notes that
justice and the just
man are the greatest goods of the city,24 the prerequisite,
coherent ties to the political
edifice. Also, the commentator of the text states that justice is
part of the sphere of
political science; justice is a predominantly political thing.25
Then justice is defined
as a permanent mood of the souls of people who cohabit and

form a political society.
Michael is completely clear that without justice, there can be
neither cohabitation
nor a political community.26 In fact, it includes not only the
political actors (i.e.,
rulers and ruled) but also those who live only within the city
boundaries, such
as the inhabitants,27 thus recognizing the important role that
they can play in the
pursuit of politics. Then, Michael ends up defining justice as an
order of political
society, as an organisation that governs the political whole from
one side to the
other and determines its quality and stability.28 The political
nature of justice is once
again highlighted. Here, Michael also mentions the justice that
exists within the
human soul by defining it as universal justice. Indeed, the
existence of this universal
justice guarantees the existence of the other three virtues of
bravery, prudence, and
saneness (ἄνδρεία, φρόνησις, σωφροσύνη).29 Even here,
Platonic influence is obvious.

(1277b) 303: οἱ δὲ πολῖται διάφοροι […] δῆλον,
ὡς καὶ αἱ τούτων ἀρεταί […] ὅστις πολιτικός εὐδαίμων καὶ
ἄρχειν μόνον δύναται, οὐ μὴν καὶ ἄρχεσθαι μέχρις
ἂν εὐδαιμονήσειε […]. Διαφέρει δὲ ὁ ἀγαθὸς ἀνὴρ τοῦ
σπουδαίου πολίτου, ὅτι ὁ μὲν σπουδαῖος πολίτης
δύναται καὶ ἄρχειν καὶ ἄρχεσθαι, ὁ δὲ ἀγαθὸς ἄρχειν μόνον.
(1277a) 303: Ἄνδρεῖος καὶ ὁ ἄρχων καὶ ὁ
ἀρχόμενος, ἀλλ’ ἕτερον εἶδος ἀνδρείας […]. Ὥστε οὐ ταυτόν
ἐστιν ἡ ἀνδρεία τοῦ ἄρχοντος τῇ τοῦ ἀρχομένου
ἀνδρείᾳ.
(1253a) 293: ὁ δίκαιος καὶ ἡ δικαιοσύνη
μέγιστα ἀγαθὰ τυγχάνουσιν.
(1253a) 293: ἔστι δὲ ἡ δικαιοσύνη πολιτικόν.
(1253a) 293: ἡ δικαιοσύνη ἔξις τῶν συζώντων
καὶ συμπολιτευομένων.
(1253a) 293: συμπολιτεύονται καὶ οἱ ἐν πόλει
οἰκοῦντες.
(1253a) 293: Ἡ δικαιοσύνη ἔτι τάξις ἐστὶ
πολιτική.
(1253b) 293: ἡ καθόλου δικαιοσύνη διαιρεῖται
εἰς τὴν ἀντιδιῃρημένην δικαιοσύνην τῇ ἀνδρείᾳ καὶ φρόνησει
καὶ σωφροσύνη.

Universal justice is contradicted by the four virtues: justice (in
its individual form),
bravery, prudence and saneness. (It is important to demonstrate
the two-way course
from universal justice to the four virtues, but also from the four
virtues to universal
justice. Universal justice is defined by the four virtues). It is
particularly important
that Michael does not restrict the functioning of justice to the
political man but
extends it to every citizen individually, recognizing in the
virtue of justice respect
for citizens in the political order of the system and the
implementation of laws.30
Justice justifies the orderly and correct functioning of the
political system, which
stems from the permanent mood of the soul in the virtue of
justice in the souls of
all members of the political community. In this respect,
political justice is a function
of the individual ethics of citizens. Citizens obey the laws, but

they do so voluntari-
ly, provided they have a permanent mood of virtue of justice
within them without
having to enforce the order of law.
Moreover, Michael notes that the law itself is not wrong, but the
people who
enact the laws are enslaved to their passions. That is why a real
political man would
be an exemplary form of expression of the private and public
application of the
virtue of justice. Subjects or citizens, imitating the justice
inherent in the form of the
true political man or the laws that are his creation, will be able
to acquire more easily
in their soul a permanent mood and a choice of the virtue of
justice.31
The constitutions
Michael then approaches the issue of the distinction and
comparison of the con-
stitutions. Its purpose is to highlight the qualitative superiority
of the royal consti-
tution by strengthening the existing state of the Byzantine
Empire. The king, having

established justice through the justice in his soul and becoming
a virtuous, true
political man, must be able to apply law to the state, as God
rules in the universe.
However, Michael does not leave the subject with a superficial
interpretation but
tries to justify why a king is necessary if there is a law that is
universal for every
political member. The weakness of the law lies precisely in its
universality.32 The law,
being universal, cannot intervene in the individual
circumstances. While the king as
a supreme legislator holds the rationality behind the legislative
system, he can also
intervene in individual circumstances to be more flexible or
more objective in the
administration of justice.33 The same issue was raised by Plato
in the Statesman, who
wanted to demonstrate the rigidity of the law. Plato likens the
law to a trainer giving
universal/identical commands to a group of athletes, although
each needs a different
30 Τριαντάρη, Οι πολιτικές αντιλήψεις των Βυζαντινών
διανοητών, 64–66.

(1281a) 306.
(1286a) 307–308: ὁ νόμος τὸ καθόλου διορίζει.
(1286a) 307–308: Οὐδὲν γὰρ διαφέρει τὸν
νόμον λέγειν ἄρχειν ἢ τὸν θέντα τὸν νόμον.
kind of training. He also likens the law to a doctor who leaves
for a business trip and
leaves his orders in written text. But the doctor’s orders relate
to a specific phase of
the illness of sick people and if the illness or the conditions
vary, the written advice
will be useless, and the result could prove fatal. The doctor
must intervene to change
the form of therapy through knowledge of medical science. But
the doctor is absent,
and people have to interpret his advice.34 However, Michael
stresses the need for the
enforcement of universal law. Without it, political men could
not intervene in in-
dividual cases of justice. Actually, Michael proposes that the
law should co-operate

with the political man, so that universal justice is imposed on
political situations.35
Michael then analyses the Aristotelian division of the
constitutions and high-
lights the difference between the perfect constitution of the
Republic and the other
six.36 The excellent constitution is structured by a mixture of
elements of other con-
stitutions and aims at the equality of citizens.37 Also, the
preservation of the form
of an excellent constitution is the consensus of the people in the
exercise of power.
This last parameter is used by Michael to support the royal
constitution. Using the
Aristotelian distinction between tyranny and reign, it concludes
that tyranny aims
at the prosperity of the tyrant and succeeds in doing this
through the violent sub-
ordination and coercion of members of the political community.
On the contrary,
the royal constitution is based on the consensus of the political
body in the rule of
the king; the king desires to be honoured by his people and does
not desire their op-

pression. In this sense, the kingdom is a kind of agreement-
consensus between the
governor and the political body and is not based on the
arbitrariness of power, such
as tyranny.38 The royal constitution is based on the legitimacy
resulting from the
consensus of the citizens to the exercise of power by the king.
Therefore, the aim of
34 Plato, Statesman, 295b–c.
(1286a) 307–308: κρεῖσσον τὸν νόμον ἄρχειν,
οὗ χωρὶς ἀδυνατοῦσιν οἱ ἄρχοντες τὰ καθέκαστα πράττειν.
36 C.f., Arist., Pol. 1279a.20–1279b.10:
Correct constitutions Incorrect constitutions
Monarchy
One Ruler
Aim is the common good
Tyranny
One Ruler
Aim is the good of the Tyrant
Aristocracy
Few Rulers
Aim is the common good
Oligarchy
Few Rulers
Aim is the good of the few - wealthy

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