It rests on several wrong principles, such as the political equality of all men, expressed in the old adage, “one man one vote.” The result is that the vote of a wise and intelligent man has no more value than that of an ignorant and unintelligent man. No consideration is given to knowledge and worth of the voters. Everything is decided by the simple addition of votes. Votes are counted, not weighed.
Equally wrong principle is that every person is fit to perform the functions of government and that no expert knowledge or skill is needed for the rulers. It believes that to run a government no special skill or training in administration is necessary. “A youth must pass,” says Sir Sydeney Low, “an examination in Arithmetic before he can hold a second class clerkship in the Treasury; but a Chancellor of the Exchequer (the English Finance Minister) may be a middle-aged man of the world who has forgotten what little he ever learnt about figures at Eton or Oxford and is innocently anxious to know the meaning of those little dots.” So democracy is government by amateurs and not by qualified philosopher-rulers, as Plato dreamed of.
Another defect of modern democracy is its principle of territorial representation. Representatives are elected on the basis of locality of place where the voters live and not on the basis of their professions, social functions or interests. This falsifies the whole principle of representation, because no one can represent various classes and interests of a locality. Functional representation would be a more sound basis than the present territorial method of representation.
Yet another defect of modern democracy is the rule of the majority. It said that democracy is the rule of the number: we do not weigh heads but count them. The majority wins in an election, even though it is opposed by a minority of wise, patriotic and farsighted men. Democracy looks to quantity rather than quality. This argument is usually advanced by men of aristocratic and fascist bent of mind. They believe that political wisdom, intelligence and knowledge are a few gifted persons and that majority of human beings are a multitude of fools, ignoramuses and the like. But these critics disregard or underrate the influence of education and environment, training and the monopoly of the nature of human mind and character.