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Full Idea
It is essential to fix the number of citizens who can participate in assemblies. Otherwise it would be uncertain whether all the people had spoken, or only a part of it. At Sparta the number was fixed at ten thousand.
Gist of Idea
A democratic assembly must have a fixed number, to see whether everyone has spoken
Source
Baron de Montesquieu (The Spirit of the Laws (rev. 1757) [1748], 02.02)
Book Ref
Montesquieu,Baron de: 'Selected Political Writings', ed/tr. Richter,Melvin [Hackett 1990], p.116
A Reaction
This looks like an immediate injustice to the citizen who came 10,001 in the rankings. 10,000 is just a smallish football crowd, so we could manage it today. We could pick the 10,000 by sortition (by lot). Most people are fairly sensible!
| 141 | A good citizen won't be passive, but will redirect the needs of the state [Plato] |
| 19920 | Democracy is a legitimate gathering of people who do whatever they can do [Spinoza] |
| 19967 | In a democracy the people should manage themselves, and only delegate what they can't do [Montesquieu] |
| 19966 | A democratic assembly must have a fixed number, to see whether everyone has spoken [Montesquieu] |
| 19749 | In a direct democracy, only the leaders should be able to propose new laws [Rousseau] |
| 20505 | Direct democracy is inexperience judging experience, and ignorance judging knowledge [Mill] |
| 21528 | Groups should be autonomous, with a neutral authority as arbitrator [Russell] |
| 20094 | You don't really govern people if you don't involve them [Reybrouck] |
| 20560 | Teledemocracy omits debate and deliberation, which are important parts of good decisions [Swift] |