...fantastic critique of democracy:
"[this political doctrine] denies that the majority, through the mere fact of being a majority, can rule human societies; it denies that this majority can govern by means of a periodical consultation; it affirms the irremediable, fruitful and beneficent inequality of men, who cannot be leveled by such a mechanical and extrinsic fact as universal suffrage. . . . Democracy is a regime without a king, but with very many kings, perhaps more exclusive, tyrannical and violent than one king even though a tyrant. . . ."
Don't cheat and look it up.
I didn't read/try to interpret the whole thing (I skimmed it) but I'm guessing someone more libertarian than Jefferson, maybe Rothbard.
Just judging from the forum title, I am going to guess that its someone we wouldn't normally expect to say such a thing but perhaps might given the right context. There are many evil men in history who also hated democracy in much the same way that Krugman hated TARP and the Banking Bailouts ("It just isn't enough!). I am going to guess either Marx or Hitler, maybe even Mussolini or Stalin? No, I bet it was F4M!
"If men are not angels, then who shall run the state?"
I am going to guess either Marx or Hitler, maybe even Mussolini or Stalin? No, I bet it was F4M!
Well done - it's one of those five.
Going along with what The Texas Trigger said, it sounds to me like Hitler in Mein Kampf.
The keyboard is mightier than the gun.
Non parit potestas ipsius auctoritatem.
Voluntaryism Forum
Hmm, clearly 18th+ century style. I'd venture to say Hamilton, Jefferson, or perhaps Paine. In a more off-the-wall guess, I'd venture Herbert Spencer.
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***Edit: Knowing who it is now, the end being argued for, for such a critique, is quite different than our preference, even if the reasoning is fairly sound. And I was fooled by a multitude of semi-colons :P
I'm going to go with this guy.
Mussolini.
TronCat Wins!
It's from his essay The Doctrine of Fascism published in 1932. A few pages later Mussolini writes:
"If the nineteenth was the century of the individual (Liberalism means individualism) it may be expected that this one may be the century of 'collectivism' and therefore the century of the State."
As Rothbard put it, let's repeal the 20th century!
Looking it up on Wikipedia, it seems like Mussolini is talking about fascism, not democracy, in the first quote.
If I had a cake and ate it, it can be concluded that I do not have it anymore. HHH
He's saying that fascism denies that democracy works. Just like anarcho-capitalism denies that democracy works.
According to Paul Gottfried, Italian fascism wasn't all that bad before Mussolini got into bed with Hitler.