POLT12200 Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Popular Democracy, Direct Democracy, Tyrant
Document Summary
Political philosophy exam #2 guide: plato"s criticism of democracy. Talk about the condorcet loser, the problem of mixed motivation voter. When plato ranked the best forms of government, he ranked democracy next to last, only slightly better than tyranny, the rule of a single tyrant. Democracy is the ultimate form of government, historically it hasn"t always been the most popular form. The rst being that he believed ruling was like any other profession, a learned skill. If he had it his way, he would implement a rigorous 35 year training program for rulers. Modern rules are chosen based on wealth, popularity and social in uence, none which according to plato, have anything to do with being a good ruler. Plato believed that only a trained ruler could determine what was in the best interest of the citizens. Anyone could determine what the desires of the citizens wanted, according to plato.
