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Prelude to Democracy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 August 2009

Extract

ALL human society so far as it is Unitas ordinisanswers the same requirements, namely to constitute unity out of plurality under a (formal or unformal) leadership. Wherever one of these criteria is absent, only an aggregation of individuals may ensue; never society.

All human society, therefore, has a constitution whether written or not. This constitution determines who belongs to the society in question, how far its competence reaches, to what ends it is established, how the will of such society is to be formed and executed.

All human society exists in the full stream of life; hence it is never frozen or static. On the other hand, human inertia and vested interests exert their strength by trying to fix the constitution of such society and to keep it, in whole or part, in a given status. Hence, there arises the difference between the real and the written constitution—a difference which both the Conservative von Radowitz and the Socialist Lassalle noticed. It prompted Radowitz’ famous dictum: “A government can efficiently and gloriously rule with any constitution as long as such government wields true authority. Without this authority, rule under any constitution will be bad.”

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © University of Notre Dame 1940

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