For example, democracy entails both liberty and equality. But neither ideal can be taken to its logical extreme without wrecking the other, and wrecking democracy. Perfect equality requires dictatorship.
Perfect liberty is anarchy.
As our cover suggests, one such tension operates between free elections and free speech. In their zeal to get money out of politics, reformers stand accused of menacing free speech and thus undermining democracy. But conversely, if money buys elections, democracy is also impaired. Happily, as I will suggest in this essay, this seeming dilemma is largely a false dichotomy. Both the structure of the original constitution and the subsequent Bill of Rights reflect these concerns.