Criticism of democracy
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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"Plato's The Republic presents a critical view of democracy through the narration of Socrates: "Democracy, which is a charming form of government, full of variety and disorder, and dispensing a sort of equality to equals and unequaled alike." In his work, Plato lists 5 forms of government from best to worst. Assuming that the Republic was intended to be a serious critique of the political thought in Athens, Plato argues that only Callipolis, an aristocracy led by the unwilling philosopher kings (the wisest men), is a just form of government. The contrast between Plato's theory of philosopher-kings, arresting change, and Aristotle's embrace of change, is the historical tension espoused by Karl Popper in his WWII treatise, The Open Society and Its Enemies (1943)." --Sholem Stein |
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Criticism of democracy may consist of claims of democracy being economically inefficient, politically idealistic, dysfunctional, morally corrupt or simply suboptimal sociopolitically.
Important figures associated with anti-democratic thought include Martin Heidegger, Hubert Lagardelle, Charles Maurras, Friedrich Nietzsche, Adolf Hitler, Plato, Aristotle, Carl Schmitt, Hans-Hermann Hoppe, Oswald Spengler, Nicolás Gómez Dávila, Elazar Menachem Shach. A variety of ideologies and political systems have opposed democracy, including absolute monarchy, aristocracy, Nazism, fascism, theocracy, neo-feudalism, and anarchism.
See also
- Authoritarianism
- Chinese views of democracy
- Collective problem solving
- Democracy: The God That Failed
- Elite theory
- End of history
- Free market fundamentalism
- Group decision-making
- Groupthink
- Monarchism
- The Myth of the Rational Voter
- Neo-feudalism
- Tyranny of the majority
- Online participation
- Political warfare
- Plato's political philosophy
- Plutocracy
- Post-democracy
- Post-truth politics
- United States presidential election, 2016
