Democracy

The unprincipled Before men are put forward into the great trusts of the State, they ought by their conduct to have obtained such a degree of estimation in their country, as may be some sort of pledge and security to the public, that they will not abuse those trusts....

On a memorable occasion the assembled Athenians declared it monstrous that they should be prevented from doing whatever they chose. No force that existed could restrain them; and they resolved that no duty should restrain them, and that they would be bound by no laws...

When the people, who have no property, feel the power in their own hands to determine all questions by a majority, they ever attack those who have property, till the injured men of property lose all patience, and recur to finesse, trick, and stratagem, to outwit those...

When an electorate repeatedly votes for socialist governments until they default on their public debt, their financial affairs must be taken over by a trustee in bankruptcy. This occurred in the 1930s when the Dominion of Newfoundland ran up debts of around $100...

But a democratic system of government cannot be transferred to other nations simply by setting up imitations of our institutions—we have realized this all too clearly in recent times. For democracy to work, it requires what Montesquieu described as a special quality...

It is in its dynamic, rather than in its static, aspects that the value of democracy proves itself. As is true of liberty, the benefits of democracy will show themselves only in the long run, while its more immediate achievements may well be inferior to those of other...

Whenever it is necessary that one of several conflicting opinions should prevail and when one would have to be made to prevail by force if need be, it is less wasteful to determine which has the stronger support by counting numbers than by fighting. Democracy is the...

Every man and every body of men on earth, possesses the right of self-government. They receive it with their being from the hand of nature. Individuals exercise it by their single will, collections of men by that of their majority. —Thomas Jefferson. Opinion on the...