Hobbes‘s insistence on absolutism : “impose limitation on the authority of the government is to invite irresoluble disputes over whether it has overstepped those limits. If each person is to decide for herself whether the government should be obeyed, factional disagreement—and war to settle the issue, or at least paralysis of effective government” (Hobbes, Thomas, 1588-1679, Leviathan).
But if not regulated and in violation of civil and divine laws, there is no democracy but rather a Tyranny of the Majority;
How the principle of the sovereignty of the people is to be understood–Impossibility of conceiving a mixed government–The sovereign power must exist somewhere–Precautions to be taken to control its action –These precautions have not been taken in the United States –Consequences” (Alexis de Tocqueville in his Democracy in America (1835, 1840).
“Man was born free, but everywhere is in chains!”
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (The Basic Political Writings, 1987, p.
49).
Pingback: Democracy vs. Capitalism « Verbum Sapienti