Truls Ljungström’s Reviews > The Political Order of a Free People > Status Update

If the highest common values are negative, not only the highest common rules but also the highest authority should essentially be limited to prohibitions.

Coercion can assist free men in the pursuit of their ends only by the enforcement of a framework of universal rules which do not direct them to particular ends, but, by enabling them to create for themselves a domain protected against unpredictable disturbance caused by other men - including agents of government - to pursue their own ends.

The term 'arbitrary' no less lost its classical meaning. The word had meant 'rule-less' or determined by particular will rather than according to recognized rules. In this true sense even the decision of an autocratic ruler may be lawful, and the decision of a democratic majority entirely arbitrary.

Om Olsons oligarkifinnanden, och konsekvenserna av dem för politisk fomering.

We mst face the fct tht we here encounter a lmt to the unvrsl application of those liberal prncpls of policy whch the existing fcts of the prsnt wrld make unavoidable. These lmts do nt cnsttte fatal flaws in the argument since they imply merely tht, like tlrnce in prtclr, liberal principles cn be consistently applied only to those who thmslvs obey lberal principles, and cannot always be extended to those who do not.

A system which may place any small group in the position to hold a society to ransom if it happens to be the balance between opposing groups, and can extort special privileges for its support of a party, has little to do with democracy or 'social justice'.