Law, Arbitrariness and Ethics

Abstract

aminations, from various points of view, of a series of interconnected issues: the essential nature of constitutional government, the function of force in political affairs, the proper sphere of governmental authority, the necessity and limits of discretion, the sphere of reason in politics, the basis and applicability of an adequate political ethics, and the essential nature of law and its relationship to society. Such renewed interest in basic issues is, no doubt, heartily to be welcomed. The recognition that the fundamental problem is that of arbitrary versus responsible government, rather than the question of different ways of institutionalizing the latter, is pure gain at a time when democracy is peculiarly endangered from within by ancient, and increasingly irrelevant, dogmas concerning the patterns necessary for the securing of its purity. For these are, in practice, all too often encumbrances, calculated to ensure only its ineffectiveness as government.