…there is nothing to check the inducements to sacrifice the weaker party or an obnoxious individual. Hence it is that such democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights or property; and have in general been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths. James Madison
On pure democracy, and why a constitution enumerating the powers of a government is required. (1751-1836)