What William Graham Sumner thinks about government
American sociologist (1840 to 1910); author of What Social Classes Owe to Each Other.
William Graham Sumner did not write this page.
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3 dated positions, c. 1883, in their own words. Our reading of what William Graham Sumner has said — not written or endorsed by them.
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Their wordsThe trouble is that a democratic government is in greater danger than any other of becoming paternal, for it is sure of itself, and ready to undertake anything, and its power is excessive and pitiless against dissentients.
↗What Social Classes Owe to Each Other (1883)gutenberg.org All 20 from this book
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Their wordsIf we have been all wrong for the last three hundred years in aiming at a fuller realization of individual liberty, as a condition of general and widely-diffused happiness, then we must turn back to paternalism, discipline, and authority; but to have a combination of liberty and dependence is impossible.
↗What Social Classes Owe to Each Other (1883)gutenberg.org All 20 from this book
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Their wordsIt is the Forgotten Man who is threatened by every extension of the paternal theory of government. It is he who must work and pay.
↗What Social Classes Owe to Each Other (1883)gutenberg.org All 20 from this book