What is government more than the management of the affairs of a Nation? If is not, and from its nature cannot be, the property of any particular man or family, but of the whole community.
The aim of the ancients was the sharing of social power among the citizents of the same fatherland: this is what they called liberty. The aim of moderns is the enjoyment if security in private pleasures; and they call liberty the guarantees accorded by institutions to these pleasures
If the powers of Government are entrusted to one man, or a few men, and a Monarchy, or governing Aristocracy, is formed, the results are fatal.
Contemporary demands for political presence have often arisen out of the politics of new social movements, and they all reflect inqualities other than social class
The more the matter in hand calls for speed, the smaller the prescribed difference in the numbers of votes may be allowed to become: where an instant decision has to be reached, a majority of one vote should be enough
The dangers incident to a representative democracy are of two kinds: danger of a low grade of intelligence in the representation body, and in the popular opinion which controls it; and danger of class legislation on the part of the numerical majoirity, these being all composed of the same class
A king's power is physical only, controlling actions but not influencing desires, whereas the majority is invested with both physical and moral authority, which acts as much upon the will as upon behaviour and at the same moment prevents both the act and the desire to do it
Polyarchies are regimes that have been substantially popularized and liberalized, that is, highly inclusive and estensively open to public contestation
He who enjoys the right of sharing in a deliberative or judicial office attains thereby the status of a citizen of his state and a state, in its simple terms, is a body of such persons adequate in number for achieving a self-sufficient existence
The freedom of egoistic man and the acknowledgement of the unbridled movement of this freedom is rather the acknowledgement of the unridled movement of the spiritual and material elements which form the content of his life
The fundamental social cause of excesses, which consist in the violation of the rules of social intercourse, is the expliotation of the people, their want and their poverty.
Wo would insure a tender and delicate sense of honour to beat almost with the first pulses of the heart, when no man could know what would be the test of honour in a nation, continually varying the standart of its coins?
The weaker the logical element in the processes of the public mind and the more complete the absence of rational criticism and of the rationalizing influence of personal experience and responsibility, the greater are the opportunities for groups with an ax to grind
Women may have different duties to fulfil; but they are human duties
The social utility might be the sum of the individual utilities or their product or the product of their logarithms or the sum of their products taken two at a time
For Group Representation, we need to think about which groups should be represented, how many seats should a group have and how are group representatives held accountable