On the record
To discuss democratic government at large apart from its historic background is to miss its point and to throw away all means for an intelligent criticism of it.
Said by
John Dewey
Source
gutenberg.orgJohn Dewey: “To discuss democratic government at large apart from its historic background is to miss its point and to throw away all…”
Editor's note · Context
Dewey argues that historical context is essential for understanding democracy.
Share
More from John Dewey
They persist as emotional cries rather than as reasoned ideas.
There are even those who hold that the presumption is always that social loss will result from agents of the public doing anything which could be done by persons in their private capacity.
In this distinction we find the germ of the distinction between the private and the public.
They are made that way; it is “the nature of the beast.” We do not gain anything by inserting instincts to run, creep, swim and fly between the structure and the act.