One of the peculiarities of the American Revolution was that its leaders pinned their hopes on the organization of decision-making units, the structuring of their incentives, and the counterbalancing of the units against one another, rather than on the more usual (and more exciting) principle of substituting "the good guys" for "the bad guys.".
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Governments will always misuse the machinery of the law as far as the state of public opinion permits.
Governments will always misuse the machinery of the law as far as the state of public opinion permits.
The majority is never right. Never, I tell you! That's one of these lies in society that no free and read more
The majority is never right. Never, I tell you! That's one of these lies in society that no free and intelligent man can help rebelling against. Who are the people that make up the biggest proportion of the population -- the intelligent ones or the fools? I think we can agree it's the fools, no matter where you go in this world, it's the fools that form the overwhelming majority.
The office of president is a bastardized thing, half royalty and half democracy, that nobody knows whether to genuflect or read more
The office of president is a bastardized thing, half royalty and half democracy, that nobody knows whether to genuflect or spit.
People unfit for freedom - who cannot do much with it - are hungry for power. The desire for freedom read more
People unfit for freedom - who cannot do much with it - are hungry for power. The desire for freedom is an attribute of a "have" type of self. It says: leave me alone and I shall grow, learn, and realize my capacities. The desire for power is basically an attribute of a "have not" type of self.
Delegating means letting others become the experts and hence the best.
Delegating means letting others become the experts and hence the best.
There is all the difference in the world between treating people equally and attempting to make them equal.
There is all the difference in the world between treating people equally and attempting to make them equal.
To those who feel that their values are the values, the less controlled systems necessarily present a spectacle of "chaos," read more
To those who feel that their values are the values, the less controlled systems necessarily present a spectacle of "chaos," simply because such systems respond to a diversity of values. The more successfully such systems respond to diversity, the more "chaos" there will be, by definition, according to the standards of any specific set of values- other than diversity or freedom as values. Looked at another way, the more self-righteous observers there are, the more chaos (and "waste") will be seen.
Political history is largely an account of mass violence and of the expenditure of vast resources to cope with mythical read more
Political history is largely an account of mass violence and of the expenditure of vast resources to cope with mythical fears and hopes.
Few men desire liberty; most men wish only for a just master.
Few men desire liberty; most men wish only for a just master.
