The Ideas Of Democracy And Democracy

Philosophers throughout history have come up with various theories to solve the issue of which political system is the most ideal. Each theory gave a possible system of government, which philosophers either agreed on or disagreed on. Philosophers either wanted the government to be a democracy, republic, monarchy, constitutional monarchy, communist or secularist. Some other philosophers argued that government constrains freedom and happiness, and an anarchy was suitable or even how the human was in the primitive state without any form of government. Some of these theories are plausible, while others are full of unanswered questions. Figuring out which political system is most ideal has to be done by understanding and analyzing each theory, and

In other words, democracy is rule of the people, which means every person participates in the government. Democracy is a political system that was founded by Cleisthenes in the sixth century BCE, and was a system that dominated ancient Athens. According to Martin Cohen in Political Philosphy: from Plato to Mao, “in Aristotle’s ideal state it is essential that each citizen actively participate” (54), and this state may be viewed as being a democracy, since all citizens participate. Democracy, though, has been defined in different ways by other philosophers, such as Voltaire, who according to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy defined, but criticized Democracy as the “idiocy of the masses” or Plato who criticized democracy as an agreeable form of anarchy. After summarizing all these definitions one definition of democracy can be illustrated: democracy is a political system in which all citizens no matter what their level of education or class, actively participate in the government. A definition has been set for democracy, but what do the philosophers argue about this

This is one of the potential problems of democracy, and each class is a problem for the state. The common people, for instance, have no interest in politics, and the demagogues, who will use the government for personal gains and potentially become tyrants are hungry for power. In finding the ideal political system, tyranny must be avoided, and if democracy may fall into tyranny, this may be a problem. The argument though is based on assumptions, and Plato gives no evidence for this argument. Plato and Socrates go on to state that not everyone is qualified to rule and make political decisions, since they do not know what justice is and are too interested in personal benefits. Montesquieu backs up this claim about the masses needing to be educated in knowing the common good. These philosophers are saying that not everyone should be involved in making political decisions because in simple terms they are ignorant. This argument is strong in the sense that people are self-interested and many are not educated enough to make large-scale decisions. If the masses are all educated, in a sense democracy would be ideal but if they were uneducated, then it would not be ideal, according to these arguments. What political system involves only the qualified to