Listen, then, says the angry Sophist (Thrasymachus), “I proclaim that might is right, and justice is the interest of the stronger. The different forms of government make laws, democratic, aristocratic, or autocratic, with a view to their respective interests; and these laws, so made by them to serve their interests, they deliver to their subjects as “justice,” and punish as “unjust” anyone who transgresses them.
governmentquotes
Hence, in a constitutional government the fighting-men have the supreme power, and those who possess arms are the citizens.
citizens / government / power
The government is everywhere sovereign in the state, and the constitution is in fact the government.
constitution / government / sovereign / state
Neither should we forget the mean, which at the present day is lost sight of in perverted forms of government; for many practices which appear to be democratical are the ruin of democracies, and many which appear to be oligarchical are the ruin of oligarchies. Those who think that all virtue is to be found in their own party principles push matters to extremes; they do not consider that disproportion destroys a state.
democracies / Extremes / government / oligarchies / virtue
The problem of finding a collection of wise men and leaving the government to them is thus an insoluble one. That is the ultimate reason for democracy.
democracy / government / problem / reason
I know, of course, he said, that bacon for breakfast is an English institution, almost as old as parliamentary government. But still, don’t you think we might occasionally have a change, Dorothy?
As nature has uncovered from under this hard shell the seed for which she most tenderly cares – the propensity and vocation to free thinking – this gradually works back upon the character of the people, who thereby gradually become capable of managing freedom; finally, it affects the principles of government, which finds it to its advantage to treat men, who are now more than machines, in accordance with their dignity.
character / freedom / government / nature / thinking
But liberty, as we all know, cannot flourish in a country that is permanently on a war footing, or even a near-war footing. Permanent crisis justifies permanent control of everybody and everything by the agencies of the central government.
crisis / government / Liberty
The best one can hope for is a government favorable to certain claims and demands from the Left.
A leftist government doesn’t exist because being on the left has nothing to do with governments.