First, let's look at how Greek democracy was formed.
From the 8th century BC to the 6th century BC, the Greek slave city-state was formed. During this period, the agriculture, commerce and handicrafts of Greece developed to a certain extent. Greece at this time was full of struggles between civilians and nobles. In the process of this struggle, the clan system experienced changes and transformations, and was finally replaced by the state system, establishing a slave city-state.
In the early days of the formation of Greek city-states, clans and nobles monopolized the political power. Clan nobles cruelly oppressed and exploited farmers and craftsmen, and this aristocratic politics aroused the resistance of civilians. Especially in Athens, the struggle of civilians against nobles was very fierce. Coupled with Solon's political and economic reforms, the Athenians won the struggle against the nobility.
The Greek-Persian war in the classical Greek era caused some Greek city-states to overthrow aristocratic politics and establish slave-owner democracy. Because Athens is based on an open maritime commodity trade economy, it is conducive to the development of democracy. So in Athens, democracy developed better. Let's discuss democracy in Athens more deeply.
In Pericles' time, the democracy of Athenian slave owners was highly developed. At this time, consuls and almost all other official positions are open to citizens at all levels, and they can be selected by lottery. The citizens' assembly is the highest authority, and all male citizens over the age of 20 have the right to participate. At the meeting, citizens can criticize and examine public officials, discuss domestic and foreign policies, make resolutions, review and pass laws and decrees. Other institutions, such as the jury court and the Committee of Ten Generals, conduct elections and management in a democratic way.
In Pericles' era, he acknowledged that all citizens were equal and all citizens had equal rights to decide the state system and manage the country. Although the democratic politics at this time had a high degree of development, its class essence was still the democracy of slave owners and the means of slave dictatorship. Moreover, because most citizens have no time to participate in frequent political activities, they are busy making a living. In the election process, upper-class citizens often manipulate and monopolize important positions.
After the Peloponnesian War, the number of bankrupt citizens increased day by day, and citizens who lost their livelihood lost interest in political life. In order to attract people to participate, politicians have to take subsidies and even compete to raise subsidies. When the state treasury is empty, consuls will compete to raise allowances to attract people to participate in civic meetings, so it is conceivable that people will vote, throw stones or raise their hands and shout. It was at this time that the decision was made to execute Socrates. Plato's two words can be said to be a true portrayal of democracy in this era: "A man spends his best time in court, either as a plaintiff or as a defendant, but he doesn't know the real value, but uses them to decorate himself, uses unjust activities as fashion, shows off his cleverness and escapes from justice, and does some boring things, because he doesn't know that if he gets rid of the arrangement of stupid jury officials, his life will be much nobler and better." (National Seal 405b-c)
"If you want to be an orator, you don't need to know what real justice is. He just needs to know what the judge thinks is just. He doesn't need to know what is good and noble. He thinks that to convince people, he only needs to rely on the opinions of the masses rather than the truth. " (Fidel 260A)
In Plato's utopia, philosophers should be rulers. Some people think that Plato was born in a noble family, but they also advocate that "people of good birth rule" and it is unfair to draw the conclusion that he is the ideological representative of the reactionary slave owners and nobles. It is obvious from Plato's works and their explanations that "good birth" here should be understood as "being endowed with good character"
Plato's criticism of democracy at that time was justified, as stated above. If it is a theoretical democracy, Plato also thinks it has two characteristics. The first is freedom, freedom of action and speech. Such a life can be colorful. Many people think it is the most beautiful, and everyone can choose their favorite model. But this freedom will also have the opposite result: you can ignore orders if you want to be in power, you can not go to war if you want, and so on. Secondly, tolerance, regardless of all trivial considerations, contempt for our best founding principles. Democracy tramples on all these ideals. No matter what a person's original quality is, as long as he claims to be a friend of the people, he can get honor. This kind of anarchy, if done too much, will lead to extreme anarchy.
Plato believes that some people have neither knowledge nor ideals in their souls, so they occupy it with wrong theories and viewpoints. They call arrogance politeness, indulgence freedom, waste generosity, shamelessness courage and indulge in unnecessary desires. If these people are allowed to participate in politics, the nobles will be treated and evaluated unfairly, just like Socrates was sentenced to death, which reflects the irrationality of this democratic system.
How can our society be more perfect? If everyone or most people in this society are wise and just, then this society will be very beautiful. However, the opposite is true. In this society, most people are irrational and don't understand justice. These people are controlled by desire and greedy for unnecessary things, thus harming the interests of others. Therefore, it is unwise for us to let the majority rule. Rule is a kind of knowledge, and those who know how to rule should be wise and just. Such people are extremely rare, and because of the treacherous means of bad people, they have never been able to gain the right to rule. Such things are common in history.
People with ruling knowledge can't get the right to rule, and rulers without ruling knowledge will rule the people badly. If citizens lack knowledge of governance, it is nonsense to let them participate in political activities. Therefore, to implement democracy, we must let more citizens know about politics and justice. Political knowledge can be acquired through teaching, so pedagogy is closely related to politics. If a person receives a good education and is well influenced, he will become a good person and a person who is beneficial to citizens. So how should our education be carried out?
In the heyday of democracy in Athens-Pericles era, Socrates accused Perikles of not paying attention to citizens' souls and living an upright and valuable life, but only being keen on building ships, military ports, acropolis and other facilities, and making the Athenians arrogant, lazy, greedy and rude by giving subsidies and other means. Socrates believes that the first task of a real politician should be to improve citizens' souls, give them knowledge and education, and make them live a rational life and pursue goodness. This is the real political skill, and this is the demeanor that politicians should have. Socrates' political ideal is indeed a wonderful idea, but it is difficult to realize in reality. More than two thousand years later, the great Lev? Tolstoy and Socrates have the same opinion:
"Of all the sciences that people can and should know, the most important one is about how to live with as little evil as possible and do as much good as possible. Among all kinds of arts, the most important one is the art of avoiding evil and promoting good as much as possible. It can be seen that among all the sciences and arts that claim to benefit mankind, the most important science and art not only do not exist, but are simply excluded from the list of science and art. "
What a wise opinion! Unfortunately, such opinions can only be heard by a few people, and most people are dismissive, pathetic human beings!
Because without the correct educational methods, people will not get a good education and their quality will not be improved, and the progress of human society will be extremely limited.
As a college student in the new century, when I was studying history, I was puzzled by many questions, so I had to say, just as Qu Yuan said, "The road is long and Xiu Yuan is Xi, and I will go up and down."