1
results found in
107 ms
Page 1
of 1
[clx. 343]
1822 July 11
Constitut. Code
Securities
4 Moral Counterforce
5 Public Opinion Tribunal
So much as to the case of a Monarchy.
In /Now as to/ the case of a Representative Democracy. In this case at the charge of the Members of the supreme Operative power - of all of them without exception legal responsibility, may have place without difficulty: legal responsibility - not nominal /in name/ only, but effective /in effect/, namely to the purpose of exposure to punishment. During their continuance in that situation, and to the extent of the absolute majority of them, no: a proposition asserting the affirmative would be a self contradictory one. But even during their continuance in office, the minority remain, in the very nature of the case, in a state of legal responsibility as towards and under the majority: and from and after the expiration of their power /authority/ being on the /a/ /no other/ footing /no other than that/ of all the other members of the community they remain each and every of them responsible in the legal sense for whatsoever they may have done - whether in that situation or any other. An arrangement for that purpose has accordingly been proposed in the Text. See Articles
Similar Items
-
Title: [[clx. 408] 1822 July 12 Constitut]Description: [clx. 408] 1822 July 12 Constitut Code Rationale Securities Counterforce 4 Legal responsibility 5 Moral responsibility It being manifest that as members of the same community an identity of interests as between the members of the one Section and those of the other can not but to a considerable extent have place the consequence is - that to the list of the points in which the interests and thence the affections and opinions and actions of the aristocratical section are opposite to each other, an Appendix naturally expected is a list of the points in which the identification or coincidence between the two interests has place. But of a work /an operation/ of this sort the use would not in practice be very considerable. Why? Because in so far as the coincidence has place the force and efficiency of the aristocratical section is included and merged in that of the democratical: and no conclusion applicable to practice is derived /results/ from the coincidence. Not so where the opposition has place: for in so far as it has place, an interest opposite to the interest of the majority is in operation - an interest by which in so far as it predominates the happiness of the majority is made a sacrifice the minority body is over the majority of the whole: the real /unquestionable/ happiness of the many is /unquestionably/ sacrificed to the questionably greater happiness of the few
-
Title: [[clx. 341] 1822 July 11 Constitut]Description: [clx. 341] 1822 July 11 Constitut. Code Rationale Securities 4 Legal responsibility 5 Moral responsibility First calls for explanation legal responsibility, of moral responsibility any such clear conception not being obtainable by any other means as by its analogy to responsibility with reference to the power of the law. As to legal responsibility, to the purpose of exposure to punishment at the hands of the political including the legal sanction, in a Government the whole or any fractional share in the supreme operative power is in the hands of a single person, no such legal responsibility, it is sufficiently evident /manifest/, can in his instance and at his charge have place. The situation of an absolute Monarch is therefore one in which no such responsibility can have place. The situation of a limited Monarch, howsoever limited is therefore another - or at any rate /the least/ will want very little of being so Spanish King under Spanish Cortes Under an absolute Monarch, no such responsibility can in the instance of any /no other/ functionary under him whom the overgrown /head/ /supreme/ functionary is disposed to favour can any such responsibility have place, unless such should be the masters pleasure: and it will not be the Masters pleasure unless he be an object of the Masters personal displeasure whatsoever misdeeds he may have committed to the prejudice /detriment/ of the universal interest, and whatsoever may have been the defalcation made from the sum of public happiness. So far as this effective irresponsibility has place so far it is evident the power of the legal sanction can not be presented in the character of a counterforce to the power of government - the power of government in the hands of a supreme ruler or set of supreme rulers - to present it in this character would be a contradiction in terms. But, a case not altogether incapable of having place is - At the charge of one set of functionaries his subordinates and instruments, say his subordinates in the department of finance suffers the punishment to be administered by another set of his subordinates and instruments - say the functionaries belonging to the judicial department: here then the force of one of those sets operates /acts/ as a counterforce to another set his equally and assuredly obsequious instruments.
-
Title: [[clx. 358] 1822 July 14 Constitut]Description: [clx. 358] 1822 July 14 Constitut. Code Rationale Securities Counterforce 4. Legal Responsibility 5. Moral Responsibility Evidence If of such corruption and obstruction the practice is the practice of enmity to all mankind /the whole human species/ those who are partakers in it are they not enemies to the whole human species? To designate them by their individual names is /would be/ a task alike endless and dangerous. Not so the designating them by their official denominations /generic ones/
1
results found.
Page 1
of 1