Plugging for Democracy
Athenagoras of Syracuse, as quoted by Thucydides:
[Some say] that democracy is neither intelligent nor fair and that it is rather the rich who are best fitted to govern. I say, however, that “the people” is the name of the whole state, the elite only one segment of it. In addition, the rich are the best at administering the treasury, the wise the best at framing issues, but the people are best at listening to arguments and judging among them, and that all these functions have their place in a democracy. But what actually happens in an oligarchy is that the few give the many their share of risks and then, not content with the lion’s share of the profits, take them all.
Jennifer T. Roberts, Out of One, Many: Ancient Greek Ways of Thought and Culture, p. 6