Democracy : An Ideal State A Model For Future Societies

In The Republic, Plato presents a dialogue of Socrates, in which he seeks to uncover truths about what constitutes a just society, and what kind of men would rule such a society. As such a society would require a sound government, Plato, through Socrates, presents five possible types of governments, which involve varying levels of liberty and justice. Although the arguments demonstrate that aristocracy is the ideal form of government, all forms of government have fatal flaws that lead to continual replacement by other forms.

Socrates’, Plato’s, and Aristotle’s main criticisms of democracy were based on both theory and precedents. Whereas Plato and Aristotle believed that democracy could lead to mob rule in part due to group-think based on a population’s impulses, Socrates advocated that governance should not be solicited based on the citizenry’s desires at any given time. Aristotle advocated that democracy was indeed the best form of government, or better said he believed democracy to be lesser of the forms of government. Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle all believed that only the wisest should govern because those governed might squander resources and wealth, make decisions based on emotion, and revolt due to a perceived or real notion of inequality.

(Plato, The Republic, Book VIII). Plato also believed that giving individual citizens too many material possessions increased greed and indulgence, which Kaplan also believed. “The more appliances that middle-class existence requires, the more influence their producers have over the texture of our lives” (Kaplan, Was Democracy Just a Moment). Kaplan stated that when the citizens acquire more possessions, they build trust into the producers, which grants these producers more power, which ends up in tyranny. Overall, Plato disagreed with Kaplan’s faith in monarchy because he believed that the monarch might be chosen with no qualities of a leader, but had the same ideas with the fact that democracy was the most susceptible to corruption. Aristotle, another philosopher, believed that the middle-class were the most qualified for ruling, as they saw the sides of the high-class, and of the low class. He agreed that there has to be a foundation with laws, in order to prevent the chaos that democracy turns into. “The law ought to be supreme over all, and the magistracies should judge of particulars and only this should be considered a constitution” (Aristotle, Politics, Book IV, 4.4). Aristotle believed that the middle-class ruling a mix between democracy and oligarchy was the best option. Kaplan believed that a leader was needed who possessed supreme power and a

It is clear that Plato’s opposed the concept of democracy. In fact he ‘ranks both timocracy and oligarchy as favourable to democracy and maintains that only tyranny is a less preferable form of government’ (Plato 1955 ). John Wild believed “The most serious charge against Plato from a modern point of view is that he is an enemy of democracy.” (Thorson 1963) In his book “the republic” he describes what he perceives to be the ideal state, in so doing he lays out his criticisms of the Athenian democracy. His criticisms are as follows : inherent class tension, the pillars of equality and liberty and the ability of normal people to rule justly.

In his classification of constitutions, democracy belongs to the division in which the rulers rule for their own interest and the constitution is unjust. He views democracy as a corrupt and perverted constitution because he does not consider the standard of citizenship to be relevant standards for the purposes of this particular problem of distributive justice (Burns, 2009). The form of government is a democracy when the free, who are also the poor and the majority, govern (Politics by Aristotle, 2011). In order to save democracy from its perversion, Aristotle proposed an assumption. There must be a rise of middle class because it is least likely to shrink from the rule, or to be over-ambitious for it (Politics by Aristotle, 2011). In a general sense, the political realm is only exclusive for the male considering their superiority against the female. Whereas, deliberation and voting is also exclusive for the male citizens of the polis and he emphasized the importance of reason for the effective decision-making of the people. As opposed to democracy and the two other perversions of constitution: oligarchy and tyranny, he adhered to the government based on virtue. For him, a kingly rule is the ideal, however he is aware that it could deteriorate into tyranny. Aristotle’s ideal constitution is really a form of aristocracy, however, if this should turn not to be possible in practice, he

According to Plato, the average person lacks the knowledge and mastery of emotions necessary to make informed and rational decisions about various government laws and practices. He thinks that the general public is driven by its own self-interest in the world and therefore cannot act in a politically smart manner. Plato infers that letting these people, who are guided by emotion and ignorant to procedures of the government, run the State or democracy is a bad idea altogether. He decides that only the philosopher kings, whose main goal is to help maintain good for the entire community, should be allowed to rule a government. And he goes on to imply that the rulers need not be tempted by living simply to improve their own lives, rather they continue working to benefit everyone.

Plato is primarily supportive of a Guardian (a military trained, and naturally wise man), becoming the leader of a nation. On the surface, it seems reasonable to propose that the best or the wisest, should rule. However, our democratic system doesn’t see it just that one individual person is in complete control, and takes on the burden of solely governing a country. Canadian democracy trashes the idea that one is “naturally” suited to rule, or even that political power is held by a supreme ruler. Plato’s supportiveness of the guardians whose purpose is to use military force to preserve a state is alarming because a democratic government shouldn’t be based of military rule, and

In his book, Plato displays his beliefs on how the state should be formed, how the people of the state should have their known and set rules and guidelines, and essentially, how the state should be maintained; overall, creating a functioning, perfect, utopia. In my paper, I will explain and evaluate Plato’s case for an ideal republic governed by the philosopher kings. In order to evaluate Plato’s ideal republic, I will analyze his beliefs on how the state should be formed, maintained, and how the people living in this society should behave and follow the lives that they simply fall into due to their

It is this freedom which is desired by many, but acquired by few, that Plato marvels at and gives credit toward the democratic regime for possessing. Justice can also be found even in what some would call a weakness and others, like Plato, strength of the democratic regime. Plato notes that in some instances “the democratic party yields to the oligarchic, so that some of the young man’s appetites are overcome, others are expelled, a kind of shame that rises in his soul, and order is restored.” The restoration of order pulls the ruler, and thus much of society, towards moderation, a key concept in the definition of justice. It is in this restoration of order that justice may be found, for, according to Plato, the more order and harmony is attained by the society, justice is more valued and thus more prevalent. Plato also discusses the type of ruler in a democratic regime, establishing a connection between the ruler and the regime, when he reasons, “I also suppose that he’s a complex man, full of all sorts of characters, fine and multicolored, just like the democratic city, and that many men and women might envy his life, since it contains the most models of constitutions and ways of living.” People often tend to envy what is desirable, and desire what is good, particularly envying the ruler of the democracy and thus the regime itself. Through the many types of establishments, the true Form of Justice is able to manifest itself in a variety of ways, allowing for many

It is interesting to demonstrate components and elements of Plato’s idea of a Democratic government. Plato’s democracy was a governement for the people because all were welcome to participate, if interested. The government’s structure was split into groups including the ekklesia, boule, etc. Today, I am a part of the National Society of Collegiate Scholars (NSCS), and organization here at Temple University. NSCS demonstrates some of the components found in Plato’s democratic government. This paper will examine the connection between Plato’s Democratic government and the NSCS and at Temple.

Democracy was one of the first political styles to make a lasting impression for civilization. Monarchies and Tyrannies were not as successful. Monarchies started to decline when wars during the Mycenaean Period collapsed many of the kingdoms. Tyrannies did not survive either because this type of government included, “sporadic periods of violent political and social upheaval” (McKay 44). Outlasting monarchies and tyrannies, a democracy is, “a type of Greek government in which all citizens, without regard to birth or wealth, administered the working of government; it translates as the power of people” (McKay 45). Although the definition says power of people, the only people with power at the time were free men. Slaves and women were considered to have no rights. Today democracy is seen as the right for all people to have a say in what kind of actions the government takes. It technically is people with power but the power is limited like it

Following that, I went on to discuss his use of a metaphorical individual that is the embodiment of democracy and outline his criticisms of this characterization. After that, I provided a response to Plato's criticism in the form of a counter-argument which was followed with a rebuttal of the counter-argument that showed the flaws in the counter-argument's defense of democracy. And finally, I provided my own response to Plato's criticism that did not take the shape of a confrontational counter-argument, but rather a discussion of the notion that a democracy is the only form of government for a philosopher to exist in as it contributes directly to the promotion of rational thought. Democracy, as it exists, allows for the furtherance of one's own personal desires at the expense of the order and harmony of society as a whole, Plato observed this, expanded upon it, and used the flaws of this form of government in order to promote his ideal form of government: that of the

Every nation has some type of government that regulates and establishes laws. In politics these forms of government are referred as regimes, they regulate policies and the interaction among their society including social and cultural norms. Dictatorships and democracies are examples of regimes. In a dictatorship one person or a group of people rule on the entire nation without any laws, and its citizens’ rights are extremely limited and controlled by the dictator, whereas in a democracy candidates are selected through a free and fair election and its citizens have the right of freedom. We can evaluate systems by using normative forms to analyze the effectiveness of regime type. The most effective form of government is a democracy because people have more freedom, democratic elections are fair, there are separation of powers and there are peaceful alternations in control and the authority is “the will” of the people.

Through this view, Aristotle expresses his distrust of a total democracy that is parallel to the ideas of his mentors. Plato attacks democracy and describes the disbursement of political freedom to the masses as an intoxication of wine, claiming that a democratic city “gets drunk on too much unmixed freedom” (The Republic, 220). Plato details the filtration of this “drunkenness” from society disobeying rulers trickling down to the son disrespecting the father and eventually “equal rights in relations between the sexes” (The Republic, 221). Plato and Aristotle share this skepticism of democracy.

The structure of world governments in societies looks different in many countries around the world. The types of government have changes throughout history with some doing better than others in the world. One of the leading governmental system today is the democracy with over half the countries in the world having some form of democracy. Democracy is focused on the people rule where the community tries to elect our official that we belief best to represent us in our government like in the U.S. The ancient Greeks had many debates about the effectiveness, practicality, and the implications of democracy as the governing system in a country. Two of the important perspectives from Greek philosophers come from Plato and Aristotle. Both discussed how they viewed a democratic system would work and the weakness that the system held. Plato discussed democracy as a flawed system far away from the ideal society while Aristotle stated that it is a flawed system but with a few change it could be the ideal society. The questions is what are the good characterization of society government according to Plato and Aristotle, what the flaws and strengths in the system of democracy are according to them and can democracy be the ideal society.