POLITICAL SCIENCE

Plato's Distrust in Democracy

Plato's Distrust in Democracy

Introduction

History is filled with the examples in which autocrats were the source of devastation and tragedy that dawned upon the people they ruled. Most of them were appointed to fetch out their people of turmoil, however, they ended up using their powers to oppress and dictate the population. History is filled with such examples that require pondering over the kind of people a society should be governed by and also about what constitutes democracy. Is it democracy to elect people who would also later use their power to repress and tyrannize their people? In this regard, many philosophers have enlightened the world with their ideas about democracy of which Plato is of significant importance. He presented his ideas centuries ago about what he thought of democracy, but since then it has continued to resonate the same way in society as it did in those times (Wolff, 2006, p.66-77). The purpose of the paper is to keep into consideration the ideas Plato presented in relation to democracy and to discuss whether he was right to distrust democracy.

Discussion

Adolf Hitler, despite initially being a social misfit became one of the most famous and destructive dictator of all time. His achievements and exercise of power were the results of Treat to Versailles (Hitler's foreign policy, 2007). He was elected through votes and that is why such choices made by different nations, presents a speculated view of democracy. Moreover, they also raise questions about the most suitable means of governance and the subtleties and realities of democracy where strong people are capable of doing what they can and weaker suffers what they must. When tracking ruling classes or individuals become spotty, a strong support is found in the distrust on democracy shown by Plato. Provided the current and past capitalist crises along with democracy, and under the light of Plato's argument, flawlessness of democratic system, is often questioned.

Plato's View of Democracy

A study of the ideas presented by Plato shows that he did not trust democracy to be the right way of ruling a state. This was because in democracy the power is considered to be vested with the people while Plato believed that every member of the society was not capable enough to take wise decisions. He voiced his principle through Socrates in his work “Republic which is considered to be the most influential work of Plato. It illustrates many dialogues between Socrates and the observers discussing a political theory for a just state. According to the Platonic principle, in a just city only few people - the philosophers - own the standard kind of the souls which yearns for wisdom and truth. Only these individuals are able to seek the truth and make decisions wisely. Therefore, it was these individuals who would be just and who will be able to ensure that the city is ruled with justice since they were the ones who possessed rational attitude (Plato quoted in Bailey et ...