"Who may be excluded from a share in the ruling of men? Time and time again the world has answered:The Ignorant The Inexperienced The Guarded The UnwillingThat is, we have assumed that only the intelligent should vote, or those who know how to rule men, or those who are not under benevolent guardianship, or those who ardently desire the right.These restrictions are not arguments for the wide distribution of the ballot—they are rather reasons for restriction addressed to the self-interest of the present real rulers. We say easily, for instance, "The ignorant ought not to vote." We would say, "No civilized state should have citizens too ignorant to participate in government," and this statement is but a step to the fact: that no state is civilized which has citizens too ignorant to help rule it. Or, in other words, education is not a prerequisite to political control—political control is the cause of popular education."
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Original Language: English
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W. E. B. Du Bois, "Of the Ruling of Men," in Darkwater: Voices from within the Veil (1920)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Elections
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Elections
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