4e)Socrates also claims that criminals in a democratic city have toomuch freedom. He asks Adeimantus if he had not seen mensentenced to death or exile, nonetheless staying and carrying on rightin the middle of things...(Plato 558a). A democracy has laws andpunishments as does every other government. Justice is always dependent on the wisdom of people, and peopleare fallible. Perhaps criminals do go free sometimes when given a trialby their peers, but monarchies and tyrannies are no less fallible. Historyis full of wrongly accused people being put to death, and horrible menbeing set free, in all kinds of government. Trial by a jury of peers, as isfound in a democracy, helps to alleviate this much better than judgmentpassed by a ruling body. According to Lysander Spooner, trial by juryis the watchdog of liberty, and when jurors are truly takenindiscriminately, and do theirs jobs seriously and without bias, then aperson has received the fairest trial that is possible (Spooner, 2)Socrates next takes aim against majority rule. He asks, what ismajority rule, but a system of a leader telling his people what he thinksthey want to hear? (Plato 558b) This may be true, but when a city hasthe power to choose its leaders, the leader then becomes responsible tothe needs and desires of the people if he wishes to stay in power. It isas Thomas Jefferson says, Governments...derive their just powersfrom the consent of the governed (Jefferson). Even if a leader isignoble, if the people he is leading wish for noble things, he must to thegood thing or not be leader anymore.Socrates imagines a city where there are philosophers are guidingthe city (Plato, 484), but are not philosophers human too? Why would aphilosopher be any less sensitive to corruption? Socrates response tothis is that the philosophers would be educated to know what is right forthe city. History has proven though, that just because a person iseducated does not mean he is no...
