ABSTRACT
One of the paradoxes debated in democratic thought for many years focuses on the question: to what extent is it conceivable for a democratic polity to grant all its citizens – including those intent on undermining it – full liberty of action, thus, in effect, expediting efforts to bring about the possible demise of this very democracy. This quandary, otherwise labeled the paradox of tolerance’ by Karl Popper (1962), embodies a further, inverse paradox which can be called the ‘paradox of the defending democracy.’
