Intellectual Democracy

Socrates, one of the greatest philosophers of all time hated democracy as we know it today- Birthright Democracy.

In most countries where democracy is practiced, it gives the right to every eligible citizen to vote in elections and to contest elections if they wish to. But it wasn’t the case always.

Socrates was not in favor of giving voting rights to every person. He believed that voting is a skill and not a right, as we perceive it today. He believed that the skill of voting needs to be acquired by education and knowledge.

In book 6 of The Republic, Plato describes the conversation between Socrates and Adeimantus.

In it, Plato asks Adeimantus, “Whom will he choose to sail a ship through the sea? Anyone or someone who is skilled at sailing the ship and knows about seafaring?”

The Adeimantus replies, “A skilled sailor should sail the ship.”

Socrates then replies with another thought-provoking question. He asks Adeimantus to consider society as a ship and argues that voting should be a skill and not a right.

After analyzing this conversation, we can assume that Socrates wasn’t in favor of a democracy where every individual has a “right” to vote. Rather, he believed in a democracy where only people with knowledge and intelligence are allowed to vote and lead the society.

In 399 BC, Socrates was put on trial for corrupting the youth of Athens. He was given the death sentence by a narrow margin of 52% in favor of a death sentence. While not a member of an elite community, he was not in favor of having a narrow set of people the power of voting.

Image source - top-10-list.org

We can see today the rise of demagoguery in different parts of the world. Demagoguery is the practice of gaining the support of the general public by appealing to their desires and prejudices rather than using rational arguments for gaining support.

Socrates gives an example of two candidates – one a sweet shop owner and another a doctor.?Socrates argues that a sweet shop owner can easily beat a doctor in argument by using the desires of people and prejudices to make his point. While a doctor, no matter how rational his argument may be, will be at a disadvantage because every voter is not skilled at differentiating between good and bad policies.

Although Intellectual democracy may seem like a good option, it has some negatives as well. A well-educated person can be immoral. If those who have access to education decide to support a candidate who won’t make education readily available to the masses, what will be the implication of it? Will the leader elected by a few educated people work for the welfare of the common masses or work in favor of the educated few at the cost of the welfare of the masses?

These are some crucial questions that need to be looked into while talking about intellectual democracy and the rise of demagoguery. Although birthright democracy is not perfect, but it’s better than intellectual democracy which has more chances of going south.

?Source :- The School of Life (YouTube channel)

?Note:- The conversation between Socrates and Adeimantus mentioned is not the actual word-by-word conversation, but I have tried to capture the gist of the conversation perfectly.