Thus even private morality suffers, while
public is actually extinct. Were this the universal and only
possible state of things, the utmost aspirations of the lawgiver or
the moralist could only stretch to make the bulk of the community a
flock of sheep innocently nibbling the grass side by side.
From these accumulated considerations it is evident that the only
government which can fully satisfy all the exigencies of the social
state is one in which the whole people participate; that any
participation, even in the smallest public function, is useful; that
the participation should everywhere be as great as the general
degree of improvement of the community will allow; and that nothing
less can be ultimately desirable than the admission of all to a
share in the sovereign power of the state. But since all cannot, in
a community exceeding a single small town, participate personally in
any but some very minor portions of the public business, it follows
that the ideal type of a perfect government must be representative.
Chapter 4
Under what Social Conditions Representative Government is
Inapplicable.
WE HAVE recognised in representative government the ideal type of
the most perfect polity, for which, in consequence, any portion of
mankind are better adapted in proportion to their degree of general
improvement.
Pages:
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88