The ancient Greek city of Athens lived under a radical form of government for over 200 years, called "democracy". The word means "people power" and over 2000 years later it still endures, in a much changed form, as an ideal. Indeed, many aspects of the modern world, especially the way we think, derive from the classical Greek civilisation of the pre-christian era.

Born in the midst of the birth of democracy, the ancient Greek philosopher Plato (427-347 BCE) is widely regarded as the most significant political theorist in history. His ideas are well worth revisiting to gain insight into our current political difficulties; whereby vast numbers of people have lost confidence in the political system to resolve the multiple problems and crises we now face.

Plato believed that all the many conflicting interests and viewpoints within society could be brought into harmony through a political order that allowed all people to flourish and be happy; something sorely needed today. Born into a family of rulers on both his mother´s and father´s side, in early life he assumed that he would have a career as a politician. However, it was not to be, finding himself unable to identify with either any of the existing political parties, or the corruption within the political establishment of the time. Much like today in fact.

He believed that the most important issue in politics is not policy differences as such, rather the nature of the political system. For Plato, a politics simply being guided by public opinion is not the best way to make decisions. Public opinion can be too easily manipulated by the self-interests of the media and the loudest and apparently most convincing voices; not to mention the propaganda, manipulation and deceit that many politicians use in order to win or retain power.

In trying to define what sort of political system best serves the whole, Plato points to a basic fundamental & unchanging truth of society; that there is social diversity and conflicting interests between different groups of people. Because appealing to one groups interests over another can ONLY ever lead to disharmony & strife, the best political order is one based on creating peace and goodwill, friendship and co-operation between different people, valuing each other and the contributions all bring to the common good.

In other words, the complete opposite of our current political system! The basic strategy of many politicians today seeking election can be summarised as: "The other candidate is a rotten ignorant scumbag. Vote for me and every day will be the first day of spring." Not merely uncivilised, but also misguided. The vast majority of would-be politicians begin with the best of intentions; the ideal of public service for the perceived common good, based on their own unique understanding, background and experience. For the electorate, the current system restricts us into making a choice between different party factions, which in turn can lead to conflict & argument with supporters of other factions.

How can this be remedied and Plato´s insights be adopted? The main issue is, as Plato identified, bringing the spirit of goodwill & friendship into our political discourse. Together, we face multiple problems, crises and dangers. If the solutions to these were simple and obvious, they wouldn´t exist. Because our current system tends to attract and foster corruption, deceit and misinformation (lies), the solution is to change the system. A number of contemporary ideas for system change in the field of politics exist, including Localism, Proportional Representation, Citizen Assemblies and Direct Democracy models. All of these depend for their success on people coming together to debate and consider the relevant facts and proposed solutions.

In fact, much like democracy was when it was first invented... and has since become corrupted.