70 Year Magazine Archive

Good Grey Edification.

by Arlene Croce

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must attend to all the opinions and interests in the society. Their decisions, in a free society, must necessarily be compromise decisions. Thus government must consider a multitude of interests, and the intention behind the decisions is frequently lacking in intensity because of the diffuseness of the considerations that motivate them.

It is far different with the political entrepreneur. He is single minded. His intention is fiercely focused on one issue for which he is willing to sacrifice everything else. Thus government is cautious while the political entrepreneur is aggressive and careless. It is clear to de Jouvenel that “these two types cannot work together; one must squeeze the other out.” Observation reveals that, because of the government’s insistence that the entrepreneur moderate his demands in the light of other and conflicting demands, the politics of any society gradually becomes ferocious. The stakes in the game of politics become so great that groups, now become factions, resort to violence rather than persuasion to achieve their goals, and sacrifice the general order in favor of the specific goal.

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