Question: Who should rule?
Hobbes.
‘Anyone’ and ‘no one’ can rule.
‘Anyone’ because Hobbes did not have faith in ‘great men’ or elites. He believed that it did not matter who ruled.
‘No one’ can rule because it would lead to chaos because human beings are disorderly and estranged.
Plato.
A great ruler should have philosophical wisdom as a virtue.
Rarely advocated for popular rule and democracy like other Greek thinkers.
Rousseau.
He believed that people are derived from humanity by having to live under a government in which they are not part of it.
Government by the people can attribute to common good since the people are considered to be possessed by morality and political sanctity.
Aristotle.
He believed that aristocracy and democracy could be accomplished by granting power to large middle-class people.
Middle-class people would be more sensible and moderate in their rule as opposed to either few or many people.
Aristotle’s advice is although inapplicable because such a class created quickly or easily and moreover be created at all.
Other political thinkers.
Some believe that the few and many might govern together in organisational devices.
Some urged that an ideal government should neither be many or few but mixed.
Modern answer.
Many people should rule.
Few people attack the popular rule principle.
Other questions.
How can intelligent people affirm so seemingly self-contradictory a theory?
Are there certain virtues, attainable by a minority but not by the majority, that render those possessing them deserving of power?
Is it really any more sensible, however, to rest confidence in great numbers than in some select minority?
Do the doubts that most political philosophers have had about popular rule constitute a consensus of the wise, which we should hesitate to contradict?
Should we be satisfied with prudence on the part of our leaders and with a conduct of affairs that avoid disaster?
Should we be looking for redeeming wisdom, for a Moses to lead us out of our captivity within commonplace life and mediocre vision?