Democracy in Decline: Steps in the Wrong Direction by James Allan Connor Court, 2014, 198 pages, $24.95 Edmund Burke (1729–97) was sensitive to the perils of government, especially government seen as an expression of will rather than reason: “Neither the few nor the many have a right to act merely by their will, in any matter connected with duty, trust, engagement, or obligation.” He objected to the moral decay of government, however wide the suffrage: “The tyranny of a multitude is a multiplied tyranny.” Though he was idealistically sanguine when the multitude was widened: “The individual is foolish; the multitude,…
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