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From The Road To Serfdom, by F. A. Hayek, 1944, Fiftieth Anniversary Edition, 1994, The University of Chicago Press.

The fashionable concentration on democracy as the main value threatened is not without danger. It is largely responsible for the misleading and unfounded belief that, so long as the ultimate source of power is the will of the majority, the power cannot be arbitrary. The false assurance which many people derive from (the belief that power exercised by the will of the majority cannot be arbitrary) is an important cause of the general unawareness of the dangers we face. There is no justification for the belief that, so long as power is conferred by a democratic procedure, it cannot be arbitrary; the contrast suggested by this statement is altogether false; it is not the source but the limitation of power which prevents it from being arbitrary.

Excerpted under Fair Use for purposes of non-commercial education, discussion and comment. Any transcription or typographical errors are mine.