  The general tenor of Spinoza’s democracy is easy to infer from his discussions of monarchy and aristocracy, both of which include strong democratic elements. What is particularly interesting is how Spinoza defends these democratic features, since this gives us insight into how democracies are to be defended in general. In the TTP Spinoza seems to provides both principled and instrumental arguments in favor of democracy. The principled reason is that democracies preserve men’s natural equality (TTP 16, 202) and natural freedom (TTP 5/65). The major instrumental defense of democracy is that “there is less reason in a democratic state to fear absurd proceedings” (16/184). In the TP, Spinoza focuses exclusively on the instrumental defense, highlighting what has recently been called the epistemic advantage of democracy, i.e., the tendency of popular assemblies to legislate more wisely than other legislative bodies (e.g., Cohen, 1986; Estlund 1997; Steinberg 2010a; cf. entry on  democracy.  For instance, he repeats his claim that larger councils are more likely to be rational because collective decisions force members to “have as their objective what is honourable, or at least appears so” (8/6).  He claims that the deliberative features of large governing bodies improve competency, since “men’s wits are too obtuse to get straight to the heart of every question, but by discussing, listening to others, and debating, their wits are sharpened” (9/14). Spinoza also rebuffs those who claim that there is “no truth or judgment in the common people” (7/27), claiming that “all men share in one and the same nature” and that differences in competency stem primarily from the fact that the masses are kept ignorant of the most important affairs of the state (ibid.; cf. 7/4). Contrary to Feuer’s suggestion that events such as the murders of the de Witts led to an anti-democratic turn in Spinoza’s thought, these passages reveal the depth of Spinoza’s commitment to democracy and his refusal to endorse the thesis that some men are innately more fit to govern than others. So despite the fact that the explicit discussion of democracy in the TP was largely preempted by the author’s death, this work remains a significant contribution to democratic theory.