democracy has gotten criticized by political thinkers like Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle
Democracy denotes a political system that affords its citizens several personal and political rights (Blaug, 2016). Examples of individual rights include freedom of expression and assembly. On the other hand, political rights are epitomized by citizens’ power to elect their rulers and determine the directions of public affairs. Despite its numerous benefits, democracy has gotten criticized by political thinkers like Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. They had several opposing views on the nature and role of justice.
Socrates regarded democracy as an unjust political regime due to flaws, such as absolute or excessive freedom (Klonoski, 2014). He believed that too much freedom could create undisciplined and disorganized individuals. Freedom often gets viewed as one of the vital personal rights that exemplifies democracy. However, Socrates contended that such an amount of freedom creates a less rigid social structure that inhibits citizens from achieving their highest potentials (Klonoski, 2014). He also argued that excessive democratic freedom could lead to other flaws, such as hostility among the citizens, because they may perceive authority as a threat to their freedom. Due to excessive liberty and resentment, Socrates believed that democracy would ultimately get transformed into tyranny.
Similarly, Plato cited excessive democracy as one of his objections to democracy. He considered democracy an unsafe political system because it gave all citizens authority, most of whom get motivated by personal desires. Due to the excessive freedom, citizens can attain power irrespective of their leadership skills. That is, democracy contributes to the increase in the number of unskilled leaders. Hence, according to Plato, democracy risks bringing tyrants into power (Klonoski, 2014). He posited that democracy could result in dictatorship once the need for absolute freedom transfers into the tyrannical rule. Whereas democracy today get considered as the most rational system of governance, Plato regards it as an ultimate step to tyranny. Generally, his criticism of democracy gets centered on the provision of excessive freedom.
Like the above political thinkers, Aristotle’s main objection to democracy was excessive freedom (Zuckert, 2014). He regarded democracy as a political system in which several individuals rule over themselves. A functioning state necessitates adherence to the rule of law (Zuckert, 2014). However, without it, individuals could do whatever they want without risking any punishment. Under a democratic government, the will of the citizens is sovereign, implying that no law can stop them from engaging in any action. Therefore, such an amount of freedom contributes to the creation of undisciplined and disorderly citizens.
The working of the Athenian government is a clear illustration of Socrates′, Plato′s, and Aristotle′s description of democracy. These political thinkers had a standard view that democracy got flawed by excessive freedom. Socrates and Plato considered that due to extreme freedom, justice could get transformed into tyranny (Klonoski, 2014).
On the other hand, Aristotle contended that democracy could create undisciplined citizens because their will, not the rule of law, is sovereign. Similarly, the Athenian government gave its citizens absolute freedom (Lombardini, 2013). Nobody of legislators governed them. Instead, individuals governed themselves by evaluating and voting independently on any issue affecting the state. Thus, this indicates the excessive freedom that Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle gave as the primary basis of their objection to democracy.
Socrates′, Plato′s, and Aristotle′s assessment relate to the working of modern American democracy. Individuals have the right to elect their government officials, who will then represent their ideas in government. However, the amount of freedom given to the American citizens is not excessive, as pointed out by Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle (Zuckert, 2014). Despite being a democratic government, citizens are subject to the law; that is, the law governs their actions. There is a balanced amount of freedom. However, the state’s disregard for the international rule of law exemplifies the rise of degenerative democracy as described by Aristotle.