"Workers of the world unite, you have nothing to lose but your chains."

In our review of what Plato thought of the Utopian society a comment was raised regarding whether or not democracy places power in the wrong hands. Plato thinks that democracy absolutely places power in the wrong hands. He would argue that common people, most of whom are only moderately educated at best, cannot know what is best for society. My first reaction as an American is to say NO! I absolutely want a say in my government! Then that leads me to question what determines if we fall under the "common" umbrella or not. For the most part, when we think of common America we think of the middle class. This is a monetary measure of commonness. Of course, money and social standing effect the ways in which we think and act, like it or not. There are exceptions to that rule, but for the sake of keeping this blog fairly short I'll leave those out. So, in assuming that the middle class is the only criteria for the "common" people, it must be noted that the middle class offers a wide range of educated people. Can this diverse group make decisions that impact everyone in society? In my opinion, they are the only people that can effectively make decisions for society.
To answer the question, I do not think that democracy, at least not representative democracy, places power in the wrong hands. If we handed power to an educated elite, it may be difficult for them to understand the plights of the middle and lower classes, thus hindering their ability to rule. On the other side of the argument, if power were placed in the hands of the lower classes it may be impossible to pass more intricate laws. It is arguable that if power were in the hands of the lower classes that there would be more equality, as I'm sure Marx would agree. But we have seen, with the fall of the Soviet Union and with communist China now looking beyond Marx's theory, that complete equality comes at a heavy price. It sounds like a terrible thing to say, but a well functioning state appears to have need of some inequality to effectively function. In my opinion, the best way to ensure some equality and the efficiency of the state is to place power in the hands of the middle classes, the way that representative democracy often does.


Question: Based on your personal view of human nature, will it ever be possible to have complete equality in a state? Why or why not?