Plato's View Of Democracy

Plato argued that in a state, only the experts such as philosophers or highly educated individuals should be in charge of public policy rather than the citizens as whole. (Bramann, 2009) As the idea of the many over the few, would include the poor and the ordinary, whom have little to no knowledge of political affairs. When referring to democracy, Plato’s predominantly invested in the idea of citizens voting as a whole is not ideal in a state as the people could potentially steer the state in the wrong direction. As they are not wise enough unlike educated philosophers. (Bramman, 2009) Plato’s stance of democracy is illustrated in “The republic”, comparing the state to an immense ship on a successful journey.

The comparison demonstrates that …show more content…
Since there is no absolute rule in democracy, Hobbes believes that the government maintains instabilities of which are characteristics of the state of nature. For instance, Hobbes recognizes competition in a democratic government which could lead to the “war of all against all” and creating grater instability (Apperley, 1999) Firstly, the increase in competition amongst the people in a democracy produces the notion of war of all against all. Hobbes, uses state of nature to state that individuals act to preserve their own lives and in doing so will have individual ways of judging and decision making. (Apperley, 1999) It is possible that one’s own opinion will not be heard, thus hindering the stability of democracy whereby self-interests encouraged yet the government lacks the means to put it into practice. This is vital as it adheres to the form of democracy today, whereby the peoples voice is often not heard, more so government stability cannot allow for all citizen’s opinion on political …show more content…
(Tongeren, 2007, p.80) Thus, with the main idea of a more equal society across the state, Nietzsche rejected this view as he acknowledged that democracy resonates with the disbelief in great human beings. Nietzsche finalizes with “everyone is equal to everyone else”, (Tongeren, 2007, p.82) this adheres to the notion that the German philosopher strongly opposed the social equality that democratic states identify as. In relation to todays democratic practices, the arguments Nietzsche stated are relevant in the sense that not because of a standardized society it could prove difficult to fulfil your greatest self, however, within modern democracies, governments do have the resources available for individuals whom go beyond the social