Democracy vs. Constitution

2014/11/11 User:BcatOne

This is a placeholder for an article to be written.

Recently I realized something that had been in front of me for years - ever since I came to understand the phrase "rule of law" - and it surprised me.

• Rule of Law is both necessary and sufficient to freedom in a society - as long as the constitution that underlies the laws is one of liberty.
• Democracy is optional. It is helpful as long as it is properly limited. If Democracy in the form of majority rule is placed above the law, freedom will be restricted with restrictions continually growing until democracy itself is swept away or society becomes unstable.

We are almost always most proud of our democratic political process. We owe much more to the rule of law.

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Candidate sources:
Hayek: The Constitution of Liberty
Friedman: Capitalism and Freedom
The Federalist Papers (and the antiFederalist Papers)
National Review Article: Mock the Vote
de Tocqueville's Democracy in America
Lots of other stuff