Considerations on Representative GovernmentLongmans, Green, and Company, 1865 - 141 pages |
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Common terms and phrases
able administration administrative business affairs amount appointed aristocracy assembly authority ballot benefit bers body candidate character choose class interest conduct considerable constitution cracy degree democracy democratic depends desirable despotism duty effect election electors equal evil exer exercise exist favour Federal feeling form of government functions give greater Hare's House House of Commons House of Lords human important improvement India individual influence institutions intelligence justice labour legislation less majority means member of parliament ment mental mind minister minority mode moral necessary object oligarchy opinion Parlia party persons plural voting political popular portion position possess practical present principle Progress purpose question quired racter reason regard repre representation representative government responsibility rule Samuel Bailey sentiments social society sufficient suffrage superior supposed things tical tion tive universal suffrage vernment vidual vote voter whole
Popular passages
Page 22 - a greater height, and is more widely diffused, in proportion to the amount and variety of the personal energies enlisted in promoting it. Putting these two propositions into a shape more special to their present application; human beings are only secure from evil at the hands of others, in proportion as they have the power of being, and are,
Page 21 - the entire aggregate of the community; every citizen not only having a voice in the exercise of that ultimate sovereignty, but being, at least occasionally, called on to take an actual part in the government, by the personal discharge of some public function, local or general.
Page 55 - in proportion to numbers. It is an essential part of democracy that minorities should be adequately represented. No real democracy, nothing but a false show of democracy, is possible without it. Those who have seen and felt, in some degree, the force of these considerations, have proposed various expedients by which the evil may be,
Page 37 - stand forth personally and undividedly. But a popular assembly is still less fitted to administer, or to dictate in detail to those who have the charge of administration. Even when honestly meant, the interference is almost always injurious. Every branch of public administration is a skilled business, which has its own peculiar principles and traditional
Page 12 - government depends. We may consider, then, as one criterion of the goodness of a government, the degree in which it tends to increase the sum of good qualities in the governed, collectively and individually ; since, besides that their well-being is the sole object of government, their good qualities supply the moving
Page 27 - in public functions He is called upon, while so engaged, to weigh interests not his own ; to be guided, in case of conflicting claims, by another rule than his private partialities; to apply, at every turn, ^principles and maxims which have for their
Page 22 - can make out any claim to this character. It is pre-eminent in both the departments between which the excellence of a political constitution is divided. It is both more favourable to present good government, and promotes a better and higher form of national character, than any other polity whatsoever. $^ the
Page 3 - the generality of electors are not sufficiently interested in their own government to give their vote, or, if they vote at all, do not bestow their suffrages on public grounds, but sell them for money, or vote at the beck of some one who has control over them, or whom for private reasons they desire
Page 111 - BODIES. IT is but a small portion of the public business of a country, which can be well done, or safely attempted, by the central authorities; and even in our own government, the least centralized in Europe, the legislative portion at least of the governing body busies itself far too much with local
Page 22 - The ideally best form of government, it is scarcely necessary to say, does not mean one which is practicable or eligible in all states of civilization, but the one which, in the circumstances in which it is practicable and eligible, is attended with the greatest amount of beneficial consequences, immediate and prospective. A completely popular