From a Western vantage, democracy is a political heritage that claimed its roots from the Greco-Roman cradle of civilization. Both Plato and Aristotle are recognized as the philosophical minds behind the basic democratic principles and process practised in the Western world today. From these two great political philosophers originate the two main elements of Western democracy: the principle of democracy (Plato); and the process of democracy (Aristotle).3 Basically, Plato provides the principle that good government is government that can give the most to individuals both for their physical and mental needs without jeopardizing the good of the commonwealth. The stress on the right of individuals

to enjoy life to its maximal level became the primary principle of Western democracy - government that is best is government that least governs - became the prime objective of the state more or less until the second half of the nineteenth cenmry, when the principle of individualism increasingly posed real and dangerous threats to the well-being of society as a whole. Individualism was then tempered by another great principle put forward by Jeremy Bentham and John Smart Mill, the principle of utility that emphasizes egalitarianism or 'the greatest happiness of the greatest number'. In short, the rights and liberty of an individual must be curtailed or qualified if they are to affect the well-being of others in the same society; it was then the duty of the state to provide some ground rules which would ensure the basic egalitarian rights (greatest happiness) to its citizens (greatest number).4 Thus the principle or purpose of democracy is for an attainment of the maximal interest of the people both as individuals and as a part of the whole/society. While Plato talks about a philosopher-king as a means to attain the aim of 'democracy', it is Aristotle who basically provides the process by which the principle of democracy could be obtained through individual participation of all members of society.5