Who Should Rule?

Seven trials of democracy, prosecuted by its oldest and greatest enemy — and answered by its defenders, century by century.

A course on the thought of Political Philosophy.

Course outline

1. The Ship of State — Plato's case against democracy, made at full strength: ruling is a craft, the crowd has never learned it, and the city that lets the passengers elect the pilot is already on the rocks.
2. The Feast of the Many — Aristotle's answer: man is the political animal, the many pooled may judge better than the few best, the wearer knows where the shoe pinches — and the constitution that lasts mixes the claims of the…
3. The Tumults of Rome — Machiavelli's scandal: the street-brawls between plebs and senate that every tradition condemned were the first cause of Roman liberty — and the people, institutionally armed, are a better guardian…
4. The General Will — Rousseau's answer to what the people's voice IS: not the sum of private wants but the will of the body for the good of all — law made by the whole people for the whole people, rulers demoted to…
5. The Tyranny of the Majority — Mill's double verdict: representative government is the ideal form — participation schools the citizen, the wearer still knows where it pinches — and yet the gravest modern despot is the majority…
6. Rule by Virtue — The Confucian alternative: government by the cultivated character of the ruler — virtue that commands like the Pole Star, ministers chosen by merit, remonstrance instead of opposition — and Mencius's…
7. The Verdict: What Survived the Ship — Plato returns for judgment: the deliberative turn, lottery-chosen assemblies, populism and backsliding, the symbolic power of the ballot — and an honest final weighing of his challenge against five…

Part of the Symposium course library.