What is democracy?

0:45 Welcome to Philosophy is not boring by kidopoly.com. I'm Mira. And I'm Finn. If you haven't already, tap follow wherever you're listening so you never miss an episode.

0:56 Hey Mira, I want you to imagine you are on an aeroplane, flying high up in the clouds. Okay, I'm picturing it, looking out the window at the sky. Suddenly, the pilot comes on the loudspeaker and says, Attention passengers, I have absolutely no idea how to fly this plane. So, let's take a vote. Who thinks I should press the big red blinking button?

1:20 No way! I would want to get off that plane immediately. You can't just guess how to fly.

1:26 Haha, right? That is totally terrifying. You don't want to vote. You want someone who actually trained to be a pilot.

1:34 Which brings us to today's huge brain-twisting question. When a whole country has to make massive, important decisions, should everybody get a say, or should we only let the people who know the most make the rules?

1:48 Oh wow, that is a really tricky question. Because everybody wants to be treated fairly.

1:54 Exactly. Knowing what's best against what is fair. It's the secret question hiding behind every single vote in history. Let's dive in. Before we go to the ancient world, let's think about how groups make decisions every day. Imagine our family is trying to order pizza.

2:11 Oh, I would definitely vote for extra cheese and no mushrooms. Mushrooms are the worst.

2:19 Okay, but what if mum and dad said, actually, we read three books on nutrition, and broccoli pizza is scientifically better for you. We know the most, so we get to choose.

2:31 But that's not fair! Even if it's healthy, I have to eat it too.

2:36 I should get a vote. And that feeling you just had? That instinct for fairness is why democracy was invented. To see how this started, we have to travel back in time to ancient Athens, in Greece, around the year 375 BCE. Whoa! That is more than 2,000 years ago. Yes, and Athens was famously called the first democracy.

3:01 The word democracy actually comes from two old Greek words, demos meaning people, and kratos, meaning power, the power of the people.

3:12 I like that. If you live somewhere, you should get to help make the rules.

3:17 That is exactly what the Athenians believed. But there was a very famous philosopher named Plato who thought democracy was actually a terrible idea. He watched how crowds behaved and he got really worried.

3:30 Wait, why? Did he think regular people weren't smart enough?

3:35 Kind of. Plato wrote a masterpiece called The Republic. In it, he used his old teacher, a man named Socrates, as the main character to ask a really uncomfortable question. He asked why we treat running a city differently than any other job in the world. What does that mean? Like other jobs? Well, Socrates says, if your shoe is broken with a big hole in the bottom, you don't gather a random crowd of people and take a vote on how to fix it, do you?

4:07 No, you take it to a shoemaker. Because they actually spent years learning how to make shoes.

4:14 Exactly. And if you are sick, you don't ask the people on the street to vote on your medicine. You go to a doctor. So Plato says, if running a whole city or a country is the hardest, most important job of all, why would we just let anyone do it?

4:32 Okay, that kind of makes sense. But how did he prove it?

4:37 He came up with one of the most famous thought experiments in history: the ship of state. Imagine a massive, heavy wooden ship out on the dangerous ocean.

4:48 The ocean is super dangerous. I bet they need a really good captain.

4:52 They do. But on this ship, the passengers are all arguing and fighting about who should get to steer. The problem is, none of the passengers know how to read the stars to navigate, and they don't understand how the ocean winds work. But they're going to get totally lost or crash into a reef. Exactly.

5:12 But the passengers don't care. They try to win over the crowd. They make loud speeches. They promise everyone extra dessert. They throw parties. And whoever wins the popularity contest gets to steer the ship. Wait, so they give the steering wheel to whoever throws the best party? That's ridiculous! Plato said this is exactly what happens in a democracy.

5:36 People vote for whoever makes the grandest speeches and tells them what they want to hear. But the person who actually should steer the ship is the trained navigator.

5:47 Yeah, the one who spent years looking through a telescope and studying the maps.

5:51 Right. Plato called this person the Philosopher King. Someone trained from childhood in logic, math, and fairness, who doesn't even want power, but takes it just to keep the ship safe.

6:05 Okay, I am totally on Plato's side when it comes to steering a ship. I want an expert so I don't drown. But wait, hold on. I feel like something is wrong here.

6:16 Ooh, what's bothering you? What's the flaw in his idea?

6:21 Well, what if the expert captain decides to steer the ship into a freezing icy storm because they love the cold, but all the passengers are freezing? The captain knows how to steer, but what if they steer us somewhere we don't want to go?

6:36 Finn, that is brilliant! You just hit on the exact reason why Athens defended democracy. Knowing how to do something is not the same as knowing what's fair for everyone.

6:49 Yeah, because it's my life on the ship too. If we crash or freeze, I'm the one who gets hurt. I should have a say in where the ship is going.

6:58 And that is the biggest argument against Plato. People pointed out that if you give all the power to a small group of experts, they might just make rules that help themselves and their friends.

7:10 Like, if the smartest people love eating broccoli, they might make a rule that everyone has to eat broccoli for every single meal. And they don't even care that I hate it.

7:21 Exactly! Democracy argues that nobody, no matter how incredibly smart they are, can be trusted with all the power. Because everyone has to live with the rules. Everyone deserves a say in what the rules are.

7:35 So it's like picking between knowing the best, safest way to do something versus making sure everyone is treated fairly. That's a really hard choice.

7:46 It is a hard choice. And honestly, it's a choice the world is still wrestling with today. There's no perfect answer, which is why people still debate it passionately. And this isn't just ancient history, Finn. Right now, all over the world, millions and millions of people are voting to make massive decisions for their countries.

8:09 It's happening right here, in our actual lives.

8:13 Wait, like grown-ups are having the exact same argument as Plato and Socrates, right now.

8:20 They really are. Whenever you see adults debating about elections or laws, they are basically arguing about Plato's ship. Do we trust the experts who have studied the hardest? Or do we trust the everyday passengers who actually have to live on the ship?

8:36 That's kind of mind-blowing. We are all just passengers on a giant ship, trying to figure out who should steer.

8:43 Exactly! So the next time you're in an argument at recess about what game to play or what the rules should be, remember the ship. You have to balance between what's a smart idea and what feels fair to everyone playing.

8:57 Hey Mira, did the ancient Athenians have regular elections like we do today, with ballots and voting booths?

9:05 Oh, get ready for some crazy fun facts. The Athenians actually thought voting to pick leaders was a bad idea, because it meant rich or famous people would always win. So they picked a lot of their leaders by a completely random lottery. Like pulling names out of a hat. To run the city. Yes! They used an amazing machine called a Clarotarion.

9:30 It was a giant stone block with slots in it for bronze tickets. They would drop dice down a tube, and the machine would randomly pick citizens to be in charge for the day. No way! Just totally random people! That is so risky. And it gets weirder! Once a year they could hold a special vote to banish someone from the city for ten whole years if they thought that person was getting too powerful.

9:57 They voted by scratching the person's name onto broken pieces of pottery called Ostraka.

10:04 Imagine getting kicked out of town because of a broken plate. That's wild.

10:08 Alright, Finn, it's time for the quiz. Are you ready?

10:13 I hope I don't get voted off the ship. But okay, I'm ready.

10:18 Okay, first question. What is the name of the famous book that Plato wrote? Next one. What vehicle did Socrates use in his thought experiment about why experts should rule? Question 3. The word democracy comes from ancient Greek. What does it actually mean? Alright, here's number four. In the thought experiment, what did the passengers not know how to read in the sky?

10:58 Last question. What strange object did Athenians write on when they voted to banish someone from the city for ten years? Great job! Let's go through the answers and see how you did. The answer to question one is Plato's famous book is called The Republic. For question two, Socrates used the thought experiment of a ship.

11:25 Number three, the answer is democracy means power of the people. Question four. The passengers didn't know how to read the stars to navigate. And the final answer is they wrote on broken pieces of pottery called Ostraca.

11:41 You know, I'm still not totally sure who I'd want steering the ship. I want someone really smart, but I also want them to listen to me.

11:49 And it's totally okay to end up still wondering. That's exactly what philosophy is for. It gives us the space to sit with the hard questions together.

11:59 Hey, if you like thinking about Plato's ship with us, please leave us a five-star review. Just scroll down and tap the stars. It helps other passengers find our show. Yes!

12:11 And don't forget to tap follow so you get all our new episodes. Oh, and we have sister shows too. History and science is not boring, and maths is not boring. Go give those a listen and a follow as well.

12:24 Want your name shouted out on the show? Or just want to tell us what you do on the ship? Send us an email at hello at kidopoly.com.

12:33 Thanks for exploring with us today. See you next time on Philosophy is not boring. Bye everyone.