The Popes and Democracy - Part I. General Notions 11. What is "Government by the People"?

Democracy being "government by the people", it remains to be seen what this term may be made to convey. It may mean "absolute rule of the majority" or it may mean "popular share in the affairs of the State", without necessarily involving absolute majority rule, nor even any popular rule at all in the strict sense. We have seen what modern ideas are in his respect. St. Thomas Aquinas, however, had quite a different conception of democracy. He did say that: "people have the right to choose their rulers," and he also said that: "rulers can be chosen from the people," but he never contemplated majority rule. He did not see democracy as a political creed or as a self-sufficient and complete system finding in itself justification for any sort of legislation, but rather as a set of institutions within a monarchical-hierarchical structure. People have, indeed, the right to choose their rulers because if it were not so, they might be ruled against their own wishes. People should also be able to provide rulers from among themselves, and not choose them only from an upper class, because it is from the people, in the final analysis, that the life of the nation renews itself. St. Thomas' teaching is therefore eminently wise, and he made it clear that: "such was the form of government established by Divine Law. For this is the best form of polity, being partly Kingdom, since there is one head of all; partly aristocracy, in so far as a number of persons are set in authority; partly democracy, i.e. government by the people, in so far as the rulers can be chosen from the people, and the people have the right to choose their rulers."