The first is that of power; the second that of the citizen; and the third being how they encounter each other. Now, the maintenance of any society requires some degree of regimentation of the mind and manner of its individual inhabitants. Often enough, the priority of the powerful is to stay in power, which is why the regimenting tends to overwhelm the representing. The good state is one which, in like manner, fearlessly develops citizens with minds of their own, whose will is authentic enough to need genuine political representation. His recent books include The Eurasian Core: Dialogues with Wang Gungwu on the History of the World (ISEAS Publishing 2016)

Source: The Edge Markets February 04, 2017 16:29 UTC