Mises Wire

Democracy: The Enemy of Liberty

Lets-all-buy-war-bonds

“The theory involves a conceptual conflation of democracy and liberty (freedom) that can only be called scandalous, especially coming from self-proclaimed libertarians.  The foundation and cornerstone of liberty is the institution of private property; and private—exclusive—property is logically incompatible with democracy—majority rule.  Democracy has nothing to do with freedom.  Democracy is a soft variant of communism....the doctrine of democratic peace, which goes back to the days of Woodrow Wilson and World War I, has been revived in recent years by George W. Bush and his neo-conservative advisors, and by now has become intellectual folklore even in liberal-libertarian circles.”

—Hans-Hermann Hoppe, The Paradox of Imperialism

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