Democracy is a system that promises the wellbeing of people, the equality of people, and a government free of corruption. Over centuries, we have blindly accepted these freedoms, but it is time to stop and consider, were these promises ever actually fulfilled? Have we ever truly had a republic? And do we really have a freedom of choice?

We are used to thinking very highly of democracies, and by extension, its roots with the ancient Athenians. Ironically, another of Greece’s great achievements, philosophy and intellectual thinking, was very critical of this system and wary of its glaring faults.

Book 6 of Plato’s Republic, details a conversation between Socrates and a character by the name of Adeimantus. Socrates compares society to a ship and asks Adeimantus: “If you were to take a journey by sea, who would you have decide who is to be in charge of the vessel – just anyone? Or people educated in the nature and demands of seafaring?”

To this, Adeimantus replied: “The latter, of course”.

So why then, should any old person be a fit judge of who should be in charge of a country?

The point he makes here is that voting is a skill to be taught and that a democracy is only as effective as the education system surrounding it. Thus, allowing the citizenry to vote, is as irresponsible as putting them in charge of a ship sailing through a storm. He didn’t believe that only a small elite should only ever vote, but that voting rights should remain limited to those who are able to make rational and informed decisions. This, is the distinction between an intellectual democracy and a democracy by birthright.

Socrates also warns of the risk of a demagoguery that a free democracy may present – where there are two types of potential candidates, the sweetshop owner and the doctor. The sweetshop owner is able to exploit the masses desire for easy answers, saying: “oh look at this man, he hurts you and tells, puts needles in you, and tells you not to eat or drink as you please. He won’t give you the delights that I offer”. To this, the doctor can not provide a reasonable response. He can not say “I put restrictions on you and make you feel pain for your own benefit” There would be a public uproar! As a result of this, many sweetshop owners are elected, and very few doctors. And so, the promise of wellbeing remains unfulfilled.

The warnings of Socrates were not just theories, but we can see them put into practice with recent examples, the most obvious being president-elect of the United States, Donald Trump. Donald trump is a man who rose to power with a campaign that stigmatized Mexicans as rapists and Muslims as terrorists. Furthermore, his election victory was engineered by Steve Bannon, the executive chairman of Breitbart News, notorious for antisemitism, racism, misogyny, and xenophobia.

Hatemongering against immigrants, minorities, and designated “others” has become popular universally – even in Germany, whose politics have been based on the precept “Never Again” after the fall of the Nazi regime.

Demagogues ruling Hungary and Poland claim a Christian Europe is threatened by Muslim refugees, Brexiters in the UK are fed a twisted depiction of foreigners, almost the majority of the Jewish population in Israel call for Arab citizens to be expelled, the Netherlands’ Geert Wilders mustered support with his demand for mass deportations of Muslims, in India, Hindu supremacism feeds off of ostracizing minorities, Turkish president Erdogan is trying to cement his support by encouraging attacks on Turkey’s Kurdish citizens, politicians in Sri Lanka have found success at the expense of a Tamil minority, which faced a massacre in 2009 and who are now victims of oppressive policies, assaults on ethnic and religious minorities are commonplace in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia and Thailand, and finally, the “democracy” in Myanmar calls for an ethnic cleansing of the Rohingyas people, persecuted in Nazi fashion.

These new demagogues combine xenophobia with a progressivist rhetoric about improved housing, healthcare, and schools. They vow to “take back control” and reestablish a nations sovereignty – a project most easily achieved by highlighting the “enemies” of the people, with minorities as obvious scapegoats. And thus, the promise of equality also, remains unfulfilled.

One condition of the democratic system is left to test, are our governments free of corruption?

CEO of Cambridge Analytica, Alexander Nix, wasn’t secretive with the company’s “approach to data communication… [playing] an integral part in President-elect Trump’s extraordinary win”. He claims that the company applied psychometrics to “profile the personality of every adult in the United States of America – 220 million people” by using data points and analyzing citizen’s digital footprints, using the OCEAN model to measure an individuals’ personality. This allowed them to micro-target people with political marketing, playing on people’s fears, needs, and interests.

This marketing came in two forms: sponsored adverts on Facebook timelines and through the app Groundgame, which combined the processed data with mapping technology, telling canvassers exactly how to approach a voter before knocking on their door. An applied example would be how certain demographics such as African Americans were targeted with ads on their Facebook timelines showing Hillary Clinton referring to black men as predators, to undermine her support.

With people being manipulated so intricately by the selective and subjective showcase of “facts”, one could argue that people don’t even have the basic requirement of freewill in their vote, which the very idea of democracy was founded on. Political candidates are able to control you’re the vote of people without them having the option to rationalize the choices yourself. And thus, a corruption free government, is the final promise left unfulfilled.