Sublime

Le premier risque des démocraties reste toutefois, comme l’avait prédit Tocqueville, leur décomposition intérieure sous la pression de l’individualisme, de la corruption de l’information, de la démagogie, de la fascination devant les hommes forts et la violence.

The proposed Constitution “forms a happy combination in this respect; the great and aggregate interests being referred to the national, the local and particular to the State legislatures.”67 Madison thus deployed scale across space to reverse time: history would henceforth strengthen his republic by allowing factions to compete at all levels, so

Moses was able to shape a city and to build an empire because the supple mind that had conceived of a Minor Sports Association for Yale and innovations in the civil service system for New York City—and also of substantial portions of the New York State Constitution—and focused on the possibilities of an institution still in its infancy as an urban

Milton Friedman skizzierte 1962 in „Kapitalismus und Freiheit“ eine Art Minimalprogramm an staatlichen Aufgaben, in dessen Zentrum die Durchsetzung individueller Freiheiten und Rechte steht. Der Staat soll Bürger vor Gewalt und Zwang schützen – vor äußeren Feinden und inneren Bedrohungen. Deswegen braucht ein Staat sowohl Armee als auch Polizei.

Wilson chose his cabinet primarily to reward the faithful, repay obligations, and punish his opponents. Little attention was paid to professional expertise or even a modest awareness of the subject matter of each portfolio.