more on this theme | more from this thinker | more from this text
Full Idea
A democracy where public life is made up of strife between political parties is incapable of preventing the formation of a party whose avowed aim is the overthrow of that democracy.
Gist of Idea
Party politics in a democracy can't avoid an anti-democratic party
Source
Simone Weil (The Need for Roots [1943], I 'Opinion')
Book Ref
Weil,Simone: 'The Need for Roots' [Routledge 2002], p.28
A Reaction
We have seen this around 2020 in the USA and the UK. Freedom is compulsory? Weil hates political parties (as did Rousseau).
Related Idea
Idea 19803 If the state contains associations there are fewer opinions, undermining the general will [Rousseau]