"You see what St Augustine said in his Treatise on Free Will, in chapter 6 of the first book: If a people is reasonable, serious and very vigilant in its defence of the common-good, it is good to promulgate a law permitting it to appoint those magistrates who administer public affairs. However, if this people becomes depraved little by little and abuses its suffrage, if it gives over government to scandalous persons and criminals, then it is fitting to remove from them the facility to make appointments and to return it to a small number of good men."
St Thomas Aquinas,
Summa Theologica.
Thursday, 11 December 2008
Quote of the Week: St Thomas Aquinas on Government
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2 comments:
Sounds like the good Doctor is definitely in with the above quote.
It seems he was far sighted - better a few good men; look at modern liberal democracy for government by ballot- it has lead (as I believe was intended) to mob rule, because democracy always leads to the lowest common denominator i.e. the gutter
Amen to that.
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