On the record
The essential problem of government thus reduces itself to this: What arrangements will prevent rulers from advancing their own interests at the expense of the ruled?
Said by
John Dewey
Source
gutenberg.orgJohn Dewey: “The essential problem of government thus reduces itself to this: What arrangements will prevent rulers from advancing…”
Editor's note · Context
This quote encapsulates the challenge of ensuring that rulers do not exploit their power for personal gain.
Share
More from John Dewey
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.
The invasion of the community by the new and relatively impersonal and mechanical modes of combined human behavior is the outstanding fact of modern life.
Mistakes pile up and consolidate themselves into laws and methods of administration which are more harmful than the consequences which they were originally intended to control.
That the state should be to some a deity and to others a devil is another evidence of the defects of the premises from which discussion sets out.