Liberalism — L T Hobhouse

Underlying all these questions of right is the question how they are to be secured and maintained By enforcing the responsibility of the executive and legislature to the community as a whole Such is the general answer and it indicates one of the lines of connection between the general theory of liberty and the doctrine of universal suffrage and the sovereignty of the people The answer however does not meet all the possibilities of the case The people as a whole might be careless of their rights and incapable of managing them They might be set on the conquest of others the expropriation of the rich or on any form of collective tyranny or folly It is perfectly possible that from the point of view of general liberty and social progress a limited franchise might give better results than one that is more extended Even in this country it is a tenable view that the extension of the suffrage in 1884 tended for some years to arrest the development of liberty in various directions On what theory does the principle of popular sovereignty rest and within what limits does it hold good Is it a part of the general principles of liberty and equality or are other ideas involved These are among the questions which we shall have to examine L T Hobhouse 1911

Underlying all these questions of right is the question how they are to be secured and maintained By enforcing the responsibility of the executive and legislature to the community as a whole Such is the general answer and it indicates one of the lines of connection between the general theory of liberty and the doctrine of universal suffrage and the sovereignty of the people The answer however does not meet all the possibilities of the case The people as a whole might be careless of their rights and incapable of managing them They might be set on the conquest of others the expropriation of the rich or on any form of collective tyranny or folly It is perfectly possible that from the point of view of general liberty and social progress a limited franchise might give better results than one that is more extended Even in this country it is a tenable view that the extension of the suffrage in 1884 tended for some years to arrest the development of liberty in various directions On what theory does the principle of popular sovereignty rest and within what limits does it hold good Is it a part of the general principles of liberty and equality or are other ideas involved These are among the questions which we shall have to examine L T Hobhouse 1911