Politics Summary and Analysis

Government and politics exist for the protection of persons and property. Democracy arose as the most equitable means of protecting individual rights, Emerson says. But all our laws and statutes exist as the most expedient way of solving a problem in the past, and are always subject to change as evidenced by the separation of church and state in the United States. To maintain a stable democracy, according to Emerson, citizens must trust that "beneficent necessity" of other humans lies behind all statutes because "government have their origin in the moral identity of men." Emerson believes that the less government, the better because the strongest organizing principle in society will remain the character and integrity of the individual.

Emerson declares that every individual in a free society has certain rights: employment, trust, love and reverence, Love has never been tried as...