Sublime

Tocqueville

Surtout, elle peut verser dans le despotisme si la majorité écrase la minorité et si l’égalité étouffe la liberté. Tocqueville trouve ainsi l’origine de l’instabilité politique de la France dans la destruction de la société aristocratique qui n’est pas parvenue à engendrer une société démocratique.

When a State is threatened by serious dangers, the people frequently succeeds in selecting the citizens who are the most able to save

to participate in the great decisions of government. There was, Lippmann brooded, no “intrinsic moral and intellectual virtue to majority rule.” Lippmann’s disenchantment with democracy anticipated the mood of today’s elites. From the top, the public, and the swings of public opinion, appeared irrational and uninformed. The human material out of wh

In France this security is sought for in powers exercised by the heads of the administration; in America it is sought for in the principle of election.

But if the Supreme Court is ever composed of imprudent men or bad citizens, the Union may be plunged into anarchy or civil war.