Athens was governed by an assembly of all adult male citizens, which met fortnightly to make decisions.

These assembly meetings were swayed by orators, and often acted in irrational and damaging ways as a result [example: a lot of sailors of sunken ships were drowned after a sea battle at Arginusai when a storm came up. Theramenes was the Admiral charged with recovering them. He got home early before the others, and told the Assembly that the other Admirals had deserted the dying sailors, and their relatives demanded execution of the admirals. This was passed by the Assembly and carried out (one the six executed was Pericles, son of the famous, now deceased Pericles), and cunning Theramenes got off scot free.

The majority of the people was democratically inclined. Socrates was in favour of power to a limited number of the better educated conservatives. If the conservatives (read Socrates clones) had been in the majority, the Assembly would still have been swayed by orators but in a different direction - group-think, a mob, thinking differently but still a mob.

We have tried today to limit this in our democracies by using representative democracy - elected members of parliament who meet and are supposedly not prone to on-the-spot mass surges of opinion and direction. It works partially.

Athens was governed by an assembly of all adult male citizens, which met fortnightly to make decisions.

These assembly meetings were swayed by orators, and often acted in irrational and damaging ways as a result [example: a lot of sailors of sunken ships were drowned after a sea battle at Arginusai when a storm came up. Theramenes was the Admiral charged with recovering them. He got home early before the others, and told the Assembly that the other Admirals had deserted the dying sailors, and their relatives demanded execution of the admirals. This was passed by the Assembly and carried out (one the six executed was Pericles, son of the famous, now deceased Pericles), and cunning Theramenes got off scot free.

The majority of the people was democratically inclined. Socrates was in favour of power to a limited number of the better educated conservatives. If the conservatives (read Socrates clones) had been in the majority, the Assembly would still have been swayed by orators but in a different direction - group-think, a mob, thinking differently but still a mob.

We have tried today to limit this in our democracies by using representative democracy - elected members of parliament who meet and are supposedly not prone to on-the-spot mass surges of opinion and direction. It works partially.