Liberal democracy is widespread in the West. This political arrangement guarantees the rights of a people in relation to their government. Many Westerners unfortunately cannot give a philosophical explanation and/or justification for this phenomenon. Ultimately, an examination of liberal democracy will demonstrate that it is based on notions of human dignity, equality and happiness, which are not recent developments in philosophy, but have their origins in classical thought and scholastic. It is in this examination that one can reasonably conclude that liberal democracy, while not the best system of government, is certainly better than the alternatives. Democracy is not a contemporary phenomenon. It's not native to here in North America. Rather, its practice began more than 2,000 years ago in Athens, a city-state located in the Greek Mediterranean. The philosophers Aristotle and Plato attested to this in their writings. It is in Plato's Republic that we find the first definition of democracy, which is briefly "the rule of the governed." Plato compares democracy to monarchy, or the rule of one, to oligarchy, or the rule of the elite, and finally to timocracy, or the rule of landowners. It is interesting to note that the author of the Republic thought that the rule of a philosopher-king was preferable to that of the masses. The Politics, written by Aristotle, provided a very strong explanation and justification for democracy, which will be detailed later in this article. Nonetheless, democracy is synonymous with popular sovereignty, or the notion that all members of a human community have a say in matters that concern them all. If we accept democracy as a practice, the question then arises as to what type of institution supports it? This discussion --- although ...... middle of paper ...... be onal. He has a faculty that allows him to create, imagine, develop strategies, etc. Such qualities are not found in other creatures. Furthermore, man is a social being. He does not live alone, but lives in relationship or community with others, building his family and reaching out to society at large. Man, some philosophers have argued, acts according to a certain teolos, a certain end or goal. Aristotle believed that man sought happiness and achieved it through a virtuous life. “For if what is said in the Ethics is true,” writes Aristotle in his Politics, “that the happy life is the life according to virtue lived without obstacle, and that virtue is a means, then the life which is in a means , and in a way accessible to everyone must be the best. This happiness is not found alone, but rather in the life of the community, in relationship with others..