Even though Politics was written in the fourth century B.C.,Aristotle could be describing Why democracy succeeds or fails today Much depends on the size of the middle class,a point confirmed by modern research. Do China and Iraq have a middle class strong enough to sustain democracy Ancient can still be relevant.Aristotle was both descriptive and normative:He used the facts he and his students had collected to prescted the most desirable political institutions.Political scientists have been doing the same ever since,both describing and prescribing