“What We Mean When We Say the People”

What was Edmund Burke’s most likely purpose for writing “What We Mean When We Say the People”?

• to explain why individuals band together in groups

• to defend his opinion of nations and their governments

• to express his views about the sources of legitimate power

• to persuade his readers that individuals are controlled by natural law

According to “What We Mean When We Say the People,” why do people accept the idea of majority rule?

• They have become so accustomed to it that they think of it as natural.

• They have determined that it is the best way to avoid hostilities.

• They think it is the fairest way to make laws and keep order.

• They think that it protects their freedom and rights.

According to “What We Mean When We Say the People,” what happens if a group of people seen as one body (as Burke words it, a “corporation”) ceases to exist?

• It is quickly replaced by another.

• Its former members become mere individuals.

• All of the actions it has taken become meaningless.

• The contract that once unified it has a new meaning.

In “What We Mean When We Say the People,” which of the following is a key part of Burke’s critique of majority rule?

• He argues that majority rule leads to disbanding corporations and so

  threatens the social order.

• He argues that majority rule is only right or wrong in a given social order

  and so cannot be used to justify revolution.

• He argues that majority rule gives the people too much power and so

  undermines any government that allows it.

• He argues that majority rule is practical only in certain political situations

  and so tends to collapse in on itself.

In “What We Mean When We Say the People,” which of the following is a key part of Burke’s defense of an aristocracy?

• He argues that the people will drive a society that lacks an aristocracy

  into chaos.

• He argues that an aristocracy consists of people who are destined from

  birth to govern.

• He argues that the consent of the majority is what gives an aristocracy the

  right to rule.

• He argues that an aristocracy cultivates virtues that make its members the

  natural leaders of others.

Read the following quotation from “What We Mean When We Say the People.”

What the particular nature of that agreement was, is collected from the form into which the particular society has been cast. Any other is not their covenant.

In this quotation, what is the most likely meaning of covenant? Base your answer on context.

• group

• method

• contract

• structure

What does the context suggest is the most likely meaning of impunity in this quotation from “What We Mean When We Say the People,” in which Burke discusses the traits of a “natural aristocracy”?

... To be formed to the greatest degree of vigilance, foresight, and circumspection, in a state of things in which no fault is committed with impunity, and the slightest mistakes draw on the most ruinous consequences....

• serious intentions

• a lack of planning

• freedom from punishment

• the cooperation of other people

Based on context, choose the most likely meaning of venerable in this quotation from “What We Mean When We Say the People.”

... [W]hen you separate the common sort of men from their proper chieftains so as to form them into an adverse army, I no longer know that venerable object called the people in such a disbanded race of deserters and vagabonds.

• highly respected

• deeply troubled

• lacking goals

• needing help

Read this sentence from “What We Mean When We Say the People”:

We hear much from men, who have not acquired their hardiness of assertion from the profundity of their thinking, about the omnipotence of a majority, in such a dissolution of an ancient society as hath taken place in France.

What does this sentence suggest is Burke’s most likely attitude toward the recent events in France?

• quite sad

• mildly sad

• harshly critical

• somewhat approving

According to “What We Mean When We Say the People,” what should legitimately compel individuals to follow a decision made by the majority in a government that has established majority rule?

• their desire to have a corporate existence

• their prior and unanimous consent to such rule

• a desire to maintain authority as individuals

• long experience with obedience to such decisions