On the record
Despotism grows in the first societies, just as democracy grows in more modern societies; it is the government answering the primary need, and congenial to the whole spirit of the time.
Said by
Walter Bagehot
Source
gutenberg.orgWalter Bagehot: “Despotism grows in the first societies, just as democracy grows in more modern societies; it is the government answering…”
Editor's note · Context
Bagehot notes that despotism and democracy evolve in response to societal needs over time.
Share
More from Walter Bagehot
We have thus a whole group of ancient republics of non-Aryan race, and one which, being more ancient than the classical republics, could not have borrowed from or imitated them.
The work would be done so well that we should not want any one to look over or revise it.
If those persons be people of different temperaments, different ideas, and different educations, you have an almost infallible security that nothing, or almost nothing, will be done with excessive rapidity.
The Parliament, the laws, the press were human institutions; but the Monarchy was a Divine institution.
Other voices in this conversation
