Democracy on July 14

The goals of political action should be to achieve the maximum amount of liberty, justice, and respect for individual rights possible within a given context and to alter the context over time to allow for more liberty, justice, and respect for individual rights in the future. Forms of governments should be judged by the degree to which they aid or harm the achievement of these goals.  A constitutionally limited republic with democratically elected officials and mutually constraining centers of power will generally be a structure better than others in this regard, provided the limits and constraints are taken seriously.  With democracy as such, the results are less predictable and far more variable. The results of any voting depend on the character and knowledge of the voters. Democracy alone  guarantees nothing about the quality of a government and can produce results less desirable than other forms. For example it would be better, not good but still better, to reside in a monarchy ruled by a Frederick the Great or  an aristocracy run by the sort of people who led the old Dutch Republic than in a democracy which gave great power to  an Adolf Hitler.  

Politicians who extol democratic processes as an end and justification while showing no regard for constitutional and republican restraints are ignorant, dangerous, or both. There are plenty of them out there these days. They run the risk of putting democracy at odds with liberty and forfeiting the legitimacy of the state in the eyes of those who pay attention and care.