"We may study experiments in direct democracy in Athens and in Rome more than two thousand years ago and at a later time in some of the mediæval Italian cities. This examination will reveal the fact that representative government on a large scale is a modern development originating in England, and also that while the people began long ago to place limitations on the once unrestrained power of the crown or the kingship, it was in our Constitution that a people for the first time put limitations upon themselves, which has hitherto been considered an evidence of unusual intelligence and of a high civilization."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Henry Cabot Lodge, The Democracy of the Constitution: And Other Addresses and Essays (1915) Ch. 5 The Democracy of Abraham Lincoln
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Direct_democracy
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Direct democracy
33 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Direct democracy →
Related Quotes
"We no longer use the word "democracy" as the founders of our government used it, as meaning a government in which the…"
"Why direct government has grown in favor. This increase in the power of the voters has been due to two main causes: (…"
"The initiative and referendum are schemes for allowing the voters to make laws directly without using the legislature…"
"There is... a peculiar interest... in surveying the institutions of those countries which in our own time have carrie…"
"The introduction of the referendum in Switzerland constitutes one of the chief victories of the principle of direct g…"
"Among the modern democracies which are true democracies, Switzerland has the highest claim... It is the oldest, for i…"
"Most of the American State Constitutions depart further from English precedents than do those of the Australian State…"
"Athenian democracy was different from the much later American form, not only because it was the expression of a singl…"
"Direct democracy, made possible by the Internet, does not only relate to popular consultations, but to a new centrali…"
"The milieu in which creativity can be developed is principally the field of culture, and Beuys starts his sociopoliti…"