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.

What you will learn

  • Reconstruct the ship of state image and map each element: owner, crew, stargazer.
  • State the craft analogy precisely: ruling is a skill, skills belong to the trained, therefore consulting the populace courts disaster.
  • Separate the cheap move (demos = mob) from the real argument, and state what Plato's guardians are FOR.
  • State the summation argument and the potluck image: pooled judgment can exceed expert judgment, and why.
  • Run the user-judges-best move (Dewey's shoe, the diner and the cook): voting reveals where it pinches — knowledge no expert can supply from outside.
  • Describe the polity: why the durable constitution MIXES the few and the many rather than crowning either.
  • State the two humors and draw the institutional conclusion: the guard of liberty belongs with those who desire only not to be dominated.
  • Explain the scandal of the tumults: why the disunion of plebs and senate was the first cause of Roman liberty, and what institutions it produced.

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…

Works read in this course

  • Republic — Plato's masterwork: the ship of state, the craft of ruling, philosopher-kings — and democracy as the embroidered coat
  • Politics — Aristotle's reply (c. 330 BCE): man the political animal, the summation argument, the mixed constitution
  • Discourses on Livy — Machiavelli's republican testament (c. 1517): the tumults that kept Rome free, the people more prudent than a prince
  • The Social Contract — Rousseau (1762): the general will, the people as sovereign, the rulers as mere servants of the law
  • On Liberty and Considerations on Representative Government — Mill (1859, 1861): the schooled citizen, representation, and the tyranny of the majority
  • Analects — Confucius, via his students: the rule of virtue that commands like the Pole Star
  • Mengzi — Mencius (c. 300 BCE): the people the most important, the ruler the least — and Heaven's mandate forfeit by misrule

Terms introduced

demos, craft analogy, guardians, summation argument, polity, tumults, general will, will of all, tyranny of the majority, representative government, competitive elitism, Condorcet's jury theorem, mixed-motivation voting, aggregative democracy, deliberative democracy, sortition

Part of the Simposeum course library.