Book Description
Excerpt from The Relations Between Freedom and Responsibility in the Evolution of Democratic Government For the successful conduct of a nation's affairs, we must have a certain degree of conformity between its political institutions and the moral character of its members. There is one set of virtues which fits men to be subjects of a monarchy; there is another very different set which is requisite for the citizens of a free commonwealth. We find a tendency among many people at the present day to claim the political rights of free citizens without accepting the moral obligations which go with them. But the attempt to assume the privileges of freedom and disclaim its responsibilities is fatal to the nation which tolerates it; and theories of law or schemes of social reform which ignore this ethical basis of democracy are likely to prove suicidal. It is the object of this book to show what this ethical basis of democracy is, how it has arisen, and what happens if we try to ignore it. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
