Studies in Civics by James T. McCleary
page 10 of 508 (01%)
page 10 of 508 (01%)
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greater the interdependence of the individuals, the more complex the
government. Confining our attention now to man, whose government is the most complex, we may put our generalization into this form: Man establishes government because _by nature he is a social being_. This may be taken as the fundamental reason. Let us now proceed to trace the relation between cause and effect. In order that people may go from place to place to meet others for pleasure or business, roads are needed. Some of these roads may cross streams too deep for fording, so bridges must be provided. These things are for the good of all; they are public needs, and should be provided by the public. But "what is every body's business is nobody's business." It follows that the public must appoint certain persons to look after such things. By the act of appointing these persons, society becomes to that extent organized. We see, then, that society organizes in order to provide certain public improvements, _to carry on certain public works_. For his own preservation, man is endowed with another quality, namely, selfishness. Sometimes this is so strong in a person as to cause him to disregard the rights of others. By experience man has learned that _every_ person is interested in seeing that conflicting claims are settled on a better basis than that of the relative strength of the contestants. In other words, all are interested in the prevalence of peace and the rightful settlement of disputes. That this work may surely be done, it is obvious that society must appoint certain persons to attend to it; that is, society organizes _to establish justice._ Communities take their character from that of the individuals composing |
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