ABSTRACT
“Democratic despotism” under the aegis of “an immense and tutelary power” was thus the likely terminus of American democracy. Space does not permit a complete description, much less analysis, of the democratic Leviathan. The real danger posed by the administrative state resides not so much in its legal and institutional text, which purports to be democratic, as in its subtext, which is all too often despotic. A significant minority has always opposed the welfare state as contrary to the laissez-faire principles that produce the “wealth of nations.” Democratic despotism tends toward Brave New World, a relatively benevolent police state, whereas proletarian dictatorship tended to duplicate the malevolence of Nineteen Eighty-Four. No human group can exist without governance—that is, without a fundamental agreement among its members on how their communal life is to be conducted, both in general and with regard to particular issues.
