Democracy is a form of government, which literally means “government by the people”. The fundamental questions of democracy include: how and why citizens will govern, what are the criteria for citizenship, who will make decisions by majority vote, who will decide on divided issues, what perimeters will be established to govern a territory and how the chaos. be managed if citizens want a different representative form of government? DemocraciesOne of the most influential Greek philosophers was Aristotle. Aristotle classified many things, including government, in terms of telos; a purpose, an end and the way things should be. The telos of government was to ensure its citizens had a good life and happiness. Aristotle defines democracy as the rule of the poor and the rule of the majority. According to Aristotle a government can be governed in two ways; by virtuous or non-virtuous leaders or by its economic class. For a governmental system to be considered successful it must achieve its telos. In democracy, majority government and rule by the poor do not help the city-state achieve telos. Therefore, Aristotle believes that democracy is not a good form of government. According to Aristotle, democracy cannot be a virtuous form of government because; of the way freedom is defined. “Democracies do not adequately define freedom, everyone lives as they want and towards the goals they want to achieve” (Aristotle, p. 104). For a government to be considered virtuous it is necessary that it governs for the common good of its people. The government must realize its telos; the good of its citizens. By allowing citizens to dictate how we govern, we create a non-virtuous government... middle of paper... involved in the decision-making process. A subsequent limitation has been that the criteria needed for successful democratic governance are unrealistic. The Citizens of the City-State No city-state would be able to live up to these standards. Rousseau's vision of democracy is justified in this quote”; A true democracy has never existed and will never exist.” (Rousseau, p.359). Rousseau did not believe that popular sovereignty necessarily authorized democracy as a form of government. Due to the instability of democracy, there was a possibility of civil disobedience occurring in the city-state. Democracy was best suited to small city-states, without corruption and when the general will of the people was placed above private interests. However Rousseau in Book 3, Chapter 15 states that a democratic government has the capacity to be viable if they are united in confederations.