Karl Popper: Prediction and Prophecy in the Social Sciences"There are only two kinds of governmental institutions, those which provide for a change of the government without bloodshed and those which do not. But if the government cannot be changed without bloodshed, it cannot, in most cases, be removed at all. We need not quarrel about words, and about such pseudo problems as the true or essential meaning of the word 'democracy.' You can choose whatever name you like for the two types of government. I personally prefer to call the type of government which can be removed without violence 'democracy,' and the other 'tyranny.' But, as I said, this is not a quarrel about words, but an important distinction between two types of institutions."
(an address delivered to the Plenary Session of the Tenth International Congress of Philosophy, Amsterdam, 1948)
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