Expert Rule and Democracies

*giggle*

Contrary to some recent interpretations, Plato's The Statesman, entertains the possibility that democratic assemblies, in certain circumstances, are able to produce good law (law that is functionally equivalent to that created by an expert ruler), even though law as such is second best with respect to the direct rule of the possessor of expert knowledge. This is not arguing that the expert ruler is a plausible alternative to the rule of law, but should rather be used as a measuring stick with which to evaluate the adequacy of laws.

For those who found it difficult to understand my previous paragraph allow me to boil it down a bit. In essence, I feel that Plato's The Statesman was not necessarily arguing for expert rule as a realistic form of leadership, I feel that it is possible he was instead arguing that expert rule is necessary as a tool with which to judge rule by a democracy.


*This post is, almost, a word for word copy of the abstract of a paper titled 'Sophistry, Law, and Conservatism in Plato's Statesman' by the little known Political Science Lecturer and Theorist, Xavier Marquez. You can view his CV here http://209.85.173.132/search?q=cache:uDlJDPV98fsJ:www.nd.edu/~governme/graduate/placement/Marquez.doc+xavier+marquez+cv&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk and you can view the abstract for the paper here http://convention3.allacademic.com/meta/p_mla_apa_research_citation/0/9/7/5/1/p97511_index.html