ABSTRACT
In view of author's own interests at the present time, it does not, perhaps, need any apology for starting with the consideration of the form of government known as Democracy and of other forms of government regarded as rivals or alternatives to this. As they are concerned with forms of government no excuse is needed for considering democracy in the first place as one of these forms. Thus, in the debates in the army during our Civil War, they find the opponents of democracy, such as Ireton, arguing against a democratic franchise on the ground that it might produce a threat to the security of private property. In that hope, they propose to state and examine what seem to be the most serious arguments for and against democracy, and to see what conclusions, if any, emerge from this examination.
