Philosophy tends to think about things which, otherwise, would seem to be so totally obvious that they were not worth thinking about. Given the manifest and pressing problems of life, to spend time deciding whether tables and chairs really exist or whether people have feelings can seem like being trapped in the difficult and tedious business of trying to answer the questions of a small child who should have gone home long ago. Showing how the answer can withstand full intellectual scrutiny is not easy; nevertheless the answers themselves seem to be totally obvious and generally agreed. We agree that there are tables, chairs and other people. Similarly, we agree that democracy is a good thing and that the political system inside which we currently operate is a democratic system. Democracy surrounds us like tables and chairs and the air we breathe, normally totally taken for granted. Right across the world, in obviously different political systems, the form of government is taken to be democratic and democracy is unquestionably taken to be a good thing. Except then as mere speculative play, further examination of democracy and of its value might seem to be idle or naive.