Plato's Aristocracy

My first elections and it got me thinking critically of democracy. Pretty much like how one questions one's faith from time to time. And it wasnt just me who voted for the first time. So many others expressed their reservations about the process of election and how susceptible it is to influence. But the bigger reservation was on the system itself.

Democracy! Rule by the people, of the people, for the people. But what if the people are an uneducated lot. And what if these illiterate people really dont know as to what it is that will make their lives better other than guarantee of continued supply of food. What if this unaware lot has accepted their state as fate. What if they just want status quo and they are so hopeless and disillusioned that they dont expect and want change. Would such a nation have the judgement to choose the people who would be actually best for them?
Plato answered the above question in the negative. According to him, "true democracy is the right to equal education for all and not the rotation of every tom, dick and harry in public office". He proposed a system whereby the fundamentals of a person till his teens is built on exercise(for physical abilities), music (for soundness of mind) and religion (for a purposeful existence). Then he said the people should continue to be educated and tested for the rest of their lives till the reach old age. And only people who are wise enough to clear all the examinations would be fit to rule.

The weakness of Platos system lies in the fact that it proposes a form of aristocracy for mostly the rich and well off will be able to get this kind of educational qualifications which would let them be considered as fit to rule. So if there really was an equal education for all, then the people would be expected to exercise sound judgement while choosing their rulers in any case and the argument against democracy would die there and then. However, in the absence of across the board education, Plato's system would produce aristocracy and may, deliberately (by wanting to keep power), or involuntarily (by focusing on issues that affect them rather than the masses) produce a system which accentuates their hold on power thereby intensifying the great divide.

The essence of Democracy is that it empowers man to use his faculties and his innate ability to improve his own condition bit by bit, if left to himself. That is why it is the best system of governance.