Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle were among the great philosophers of the Athenian Empire, and they expressed their views on Athenian democracy while also being among the most vocal critics of philosophers.
Socrates criticized demagoguery as the result of common people voting in elections. He believes that voting is a skill, not a matter of random intuition. He did not believe in the common people's abilities, and he believed that democracy could not guarantee that the educated and trained would rule society. Politicians, poets, and artisans were thought to be the wisest people at the time. Socrates knew they were foolish because every man he met refused to admit their folly. Socrates, despite his awareness of his own ignorance and the limits of his knowledge and wisdom, considered himself the wisest of all men, much to the chagrin of the leading Athenians (Ivanovski, 2021).
The People's
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Aristotle saw the conflict in governance as being between oligarchy, which he defined as "rich rule," and democracy, which he defined as "poor rule." He saw how each group would rule the city in order to further their own interests. The rich become richer, and the poor become equal to the rest of the people, because everyone, rich or poor, is born "free." (2021, Ivanovski).
Aristotle, unlike his predecessors (Socrates and Plato), argued that democracy is the most likely form of government because the majority of people are poor and will demand equality from the rich. Aristotle believed that a direct form of democracy in which the poor controlled the assembly would result in tyranny. To avoid tyranny, "democratic citizens must receive a democratic education, a relative education of order" (Ivanovski,