Political Theory

11

Concepts and Theories of Democracy

Introduction

For many, democracy is a guarantee of freedom, equality and popular rule. But for some, it is the rule of the ignorant and the average person in which number counts, not merit.¹

Democracy is understood in a variety of ways. The Athenians in ancient Greece led by Pericles celebrated democracy, Plato rejected it as the rule of the ignorant and Aristotle found it as a corrupt form of polity, his balanced constitution. By the time Abraham Lincoln ended his famous Gettysburg speech on Nov. 17, 1863 in the mist of American Civil War commotions; in his last sentence he had already given both flesh and spirit to the meaning of democracy as government of the people, by the people, for the people. David ...