3 ms·
Being against parties was a cliché of 18th century thought. Edmund Burke first pointed out that parties could be more than just conspiracies against the public
by dash2 7y ago
Being against parties was a cliché of 18th century thought. Edmund Burke first pointed out that parties could be more than just conspiracies against the public interest:
Party is a body of men united, for promoting by their joint endeavours the national interest, upon some particular principle in which they are all agreed.... It is the business of the politician, who is the philosopher in action, to find out proper means towards those ends, and to employ them with effect. Therefore every honourable connexion will avow it as their first purpose, to pursue every just method to put the men who hold their opinions into such a condition as may enable them to carry their common plans into execution, with all the power and authority of the State.
https://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/796#Burke_0005-01_348 https://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/796#Burke_0005-01_348
Slightly offtopic: it's unfortunate when people, perhaps technically brilliant people, come up with naïve solutions to political problems, showing little awareness that there are long and sophisticated traditions of thinking about these issues.
- kgwxd 7y ago"showing little awareness that there are long and sophisticated traditions of thinking about these issues." I assume "Political Science" is the area of study? Never gave it even a passing glance.