An American has done some ‘research’ to demonstrate what he claims no one has yet acknowledged: that hoi polloi know better than the experts. Ancient Greeks knew that some 2,400 years ago.
In his dialogue Protagoras, Plato makes Socrates wonder how it can be that, when technical matters like ship-building are being discussed before the sovereign Assembly (all Athenian males over 18), the Assembly howls down anyone who is not an expert; but when state policy is being discussed, any Nikos, Stavros or Giorgios can stand up and have his say. Clearly, says Socrates, they don’t believe that ‘policy’ (unlike ship-building) can be taught, otherwise they would demand that only experts in ‘policy’ would be allowed a say.
Plato does not, however, go on to conclude that the Assembly felt confident that, as long as they had heard all the arguments — on technical matters from the experts and on policy matters from anyone — they were in a position to make a better decision than any experts. But Aristotle does.
In his Politics, he argues that man is by nature a politikon z
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