Operational Rules

Abstract

There are alternatives. These include the military junta, the single-party dictatorship, the hereditary monarchy, the elitist ruling committee or the philosopher ruler on-beam to the underlying truth. None of them, Buchanan says, is better able to represent individuals’ preferences than constitutional democracy. Democracy, like exchange, is a discovery process that grinds out an acceptable image of the public good. Democratic politics scans the largest feasible constituency. It reconciles the separate, often conflicting, interests of the greatest possible number.