Government is Incomplete Conquest

... righting present wrongs, it was better to imagine a virtuous past even where none truly existed (Smith, 2008: 81). European elites, derived from both the Feudal aristocracy and from the rising elites of trade and commerce started out adamantly opposed to democracy. They feared and resisted extension of the franchise, and democratization more generally. Most of the Framers of the American Constitution were suspicious of democracy. The word "democracy" does not appear at all in either the Declaration ...