Excerpt from Safe and Unsafe Democracy: A Commentary on Political Administration in the American Commonwealths

What does "Safe" and "Unsafe" Democracy mean? In the first place, Democracy is that system of Public Polity under which The Will of The People decides all questions connected with establishing and administrating Government; under which The People exercise the Power to Govern, and continue in the control of its exercise.

The system consists, or should consist: first, of an explicit agreement concerning principles of association and of action; second, of an explicit statement of The Spirit and Intent of The People and of the Objects and Purposes for which Government is established; and third, of an adequate Body of Law containing logical rules for putting The Will of The People into full effect during the continuous process of Political Administration.

Generally speaking, Democracies are based upon convictions concerning individual freedom, liberty, equality, and justice as these conditions of human existence are defined by the people; and any Democracy which is as free as human intelligence can make it from opportunities to misuse the Power to Govern, is reasonably safe for the people to use.

On the other hand, any system of public polity wherein generalities take the place of clear and precise definitions, and whereby, because of defects in the body of administrative law, the people are either hampered or prevented from maintaining continuously their ordained conditions of individual existence, is unsafe for any Commonwealth to use.

Neither Government nor Political Administration is automatic. The one results from, and the other proceeds through, political action by The Individual. The force contained in mere proclamation is insufficient.

Speaking prefatorily, The Commonwealth is a Collective-Sovereign and its individuals are Sovereign-units. The Sovereign-units exercise Political Power, and at the same time some of them exercise Political Authority.

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