№ 3 - 2001
Kirk R.
What Is the Best Form of Government for the Happiness of Man?

This lecture was delivered by R.Kirk, a well-known American advocate of conservatism, in the Oklahoma University in 1956, but retains its topicality even now. In his lecture, R.Kirk stresses that, unlike liberals, he doesn’t think that any particular form of government can make people really happy. The mission of a good form of government, to his mind, is to maintain a balance necessary for the development and realization of outstanding persons’ potential, without prejudice to the majority of the population. It is, likewise, inappropriate to impose, as is characteristic of American liberals, one’s own legal institutions, one’s own views of democracy and just political arrangements on other peoples. For each people, in R.Kirk’s opinion, such form of government is good that is rooted in this particular people’s tradition and customs and is organic to the people in question.