The most decisive argument against democracy can be summed up in a few words; the higher cannot proceed from the lower, because the greater cannot proceed from the lesser; this is an absolute mathematical certainty that nothing can gainsay. (p.73)
If the word ‘democracy’ is defined as the government of the people by themselves, it expresses an absolute impossibility and cannot even have a mere de facto existence – in our time or in any other. One must guard against being misled by words: it is contradictory to say that the same persons can be at the same time rulers and ruled, because, to use Aristotelian terminology, the same being cannot be ‘in act’ and in potency’ at the same time and in the same relationship. (p. 74)
Its most obvious flaws is the one we have just mentioned: the opinion of the majority cannot be anything but an expression of incompetence, whether this be due to lack of intelligence or too ignorance pure and simple; certain observation of ‘mass psychology’ might be quoted here… (p.75)