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Often appears with: forms of government · universal suffrage inevitability · poverty and wealth · political legitimacy and consent · people versus nobles · origin of democratic man · necessary vs unnecessary pleasures · moderation, luxury, and excess · maryland universal suffrage · justice as a virtue · inner civil war · freedom and frankness
Usually: argument (2) · commentary or gloss (1) · reflection (1) · crisis of belief (1) · censure (1) · curiosity (1) · detachment (1) · praise (1)
“There is no more invariable rule in the history of society: the farther electoral rights are extended, the more is felt the need of extending them; for after each concession the strength of the democracy increases, and its demands increase with its strength.” Alexis de Tocqueville, American Institutions and Their Influence · insight
Machiavelli defines a civil principality when a leading citizen becomes prince by civic favor, explaining outcomes from conflict between people and nobles: principality, self-government, or anarchy.
CONCERNING A CIVIL PRINCIPALITY But coming to the other point—where a leading citizen becomes the prince of his country, not by wickedness or any intolerable violence, but by the favour of his fellow citizens—this may be called a civil principality: nor is genius or fortune altogether necessary to attain to it, but rather a happy shrewdness. I say then that such a principality is obtained either by the favour of the…
Marcus Aurelius continues praising mentors, especially for steady self-government and benevolence, then shifts to detailed admiration of his father’s governance style, sobriety, economic restraint, and consistent administration.
could ever think that he was despised by Maximus, or ever venture to think himself a better man. He had also the art of being humorous in an agreeable way. 16. In my father I observed mildness of temper, and unchangeable resolution in the things which he had determined after due deliberation; and no vain-glory in those things which men call honors; and a love of labor and perseverance; and a readiness to listen to t…
Socrates then claims democracy teaches its style to individuals: the democratic man grows from a miserly oligarchical upbringing, initially restraining unnecessary pleasures, but eventually adds factions of desires that war within the self.
There will. This, then, seems likely to be the fairest of States, being like an embroidered robe which is spangled with every sort of flower. And just as women and children think a variety of colours to be of all things most charming, so there are many men to whom this State, which is spangled with the manners and characters of mankind, will appear to be the fairest of States. Yes. Yes, my good Sir, and there will…
He claims Maryland pioneered universal suffrage, and that lowering electoral qualifications steadily pushes toward universal suffrage, culminating in a self-governing people where power centers in society itself.
new state of things; so that, by a singular change, the democratic impulse was found to be most irresistible in the very states where the aristocracy had the firmest hold. The state of Maryland, which had been founded by men of rank, was the first to proclaim universal suffrage,[61] and to introduce the most democratic forms into the conduct of its government. When a nation modifies the elective qualification, it m…