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Status anxiety

Long may we Brits laugh at our absurd demagogues

We are almost the only nation to defy Edmund Burke’s pessimism about democracy

23 April 2016

9:00 AM

23 April 2016

9:00 AM

In Reflections on the Revolution in France, Edmund Burke warned that ‘pure democracy’ was as dangerous as absolute monarchy. ‘Of this I am certain, that in a democracy the majority of the citizens is capable of exercising the most cruel oppressions upon the minority whenever strong divisions prevail,’ he wrote.

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Toby Young is associate editor of The Spectator.

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