如果问民主制的最大特点是什么,答案或许是,人为本(rule by people),简化解读就是上面说的“少数服从多数”。相比之下,共和制最大的特色是,以法为本(rule by law)。一个最好的例子,就是美国的大陪审团制度,12个陪审员,只要有一个人不同意,就可以推翻整个的决定。所以最终,必须取得一致同意或者否决。这就是个人权利不能被以民主的形式剥夺的经典操作。
美国宪法的前十条修正案(The Bill of Rights,权利法案),更是进一步确保了公民的个人基本自由不能用民主的名义进行侵犯。该权利法案列出了对政府权力的具体禁令,以回应多个州要求加强对个人自由(individual liberty)的宪法保护的呼吁。
該研究成果明確表明,對於美國而言,The severe lockdown states suffered much more on overall social well-being in return for relatively little comparative benefit on health.
在報導末尾,華爾街日報的編輯部特別提到一段話:
Another lesson we’d draw that the authors don’t in their paper: Thank the U.S. Constitution for our federalist system of government. States were largely able to implement their own policies. The outcomes would have been much worse had Washington imposed a single national policy as dictated by the federal bureaucracy.