Paul Eidelberg on radical democracy

In an extended restatement of the thesis of Plato and Aristotle, Paul Eidelberg gives a compelling description of the transition from the democratic to the tyrannical phase of the "political cycle". It is from his Discourse on Statesmanship (1974), pp 63–68.

In the worst variety of democracy, there are no qualifications for voting or for holding office (apart from age, citizenship, and perhaps residence requirements). Accordingly, each individual has a right to an equal voice in public affairs. This fact alone has profound moral and intellectual consequences. First of all, it fosters the notion that one individual is as good as any other, that his opinions, or his likes and dislikes, are as valid as another's. Such a notion is utterly destructive of morality and even of rationality . . . . CONTINUE