"The tragic illusion was that the adoption of democratic procedures made it possible to dispense with all other limitations on governmental power. It also promoted the belief that the ‘control of government’ by the democratically elected legislation would adequately replace the traditional limitations, while in fact the necessity of forming organized majorities for supporting a programme of particular actions in favour of special groups introduced a new source of arbitrariness and partiality and produced results inconsistent with the moral principles of the majority. As we shall see, the paradoxical result of the possession of unlimited power makes it impossible for a representative body to make the general principles prevail on which it agrees, because under such a system the majority of the representative assembly, in order to remain a majority, must do what it can to buy the support of the several interests by granting them special benefits."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Imported from EN Wikiquote
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Law%2C_Legislation_and_Liberty
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Law, Legislation and Liberty
62 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Law, Legislation and Liberty →
Related Quotes
"There are two ways of looking at the pattern of human activities which lead to very different conclusions concerning …"
"In civilized society it is indeed not so much the greater knowledge that the individual can acquire, as the greater b…"
"The fact that an increasing number of social scientists confine themselves to the study of what exists in some part o…"
"The errors of constructivist rationalism are closely connected with Cartesian dualism, that is with the conception of…"
"Thus constructivist rationalism, in its endeavour to make everything subject to rational control, in its preference f…"
"This particular function of government is somewhat like that of a maintenance squad of a factory, its object being no…"
"Individual freedom, wherever it has existed, has been largely the product of a prevailing respect for such principles…"
"Although probably all beneficial improvement must be piecemeal, if the separate steps are not guided by a body of coh…"
"The preservation of a free system is so difficult precisely because it requires a constant rejection of measures whic…"
"It would be no exaggeration to say that social theory begins with—and has an object only because of—the discovery tha…"