Government
idea · 2 works · 2 mentions · 5 anchored passages
also in the atlas: Government the group
government · form of government · legitimate government · the association
in the texts
An Essay on the Trial by Jury
The theorized voluntary association whose legitimate authority is bounded by universal member consent.
The conclusion, therefore, is, that, in a government formed by voluntary association, or on the theory of voluntary association, and voluntary support, (as all the North American governments are,) no law can rightfully be enforced by the association in its corporate capacity, against the goods, rights, or person of any individual, except it be such as all the members of the association agree that it may enforce.
Legitimate government can be formed only by the voluntary association of all who contribute to its support.
But so long as the whole people (or all the male adults) are presumed to be voluntary parties to the government, and voluntary contributors to its support, there is no consistency in refusing to any one of them more than to another the right to sit as juror, with full power to decide for himself whether any law that is proposed to be enforced in any particular case, be within the objects of the association.
Common Sense
Political institution arising from human moral failure, whose true end is freedom and security
Society in every state is a blessing, but Government even in its best state is but a necessary evil;
namely, a mode rendered necessary by the inability of moral virtue to govern the world;
In order to gain a clear and just idea of the design and end of government, let us suppose a small number of persons settled in some seqestered part of the earth, unconnected with the rest;