owever, that desire to belong, reflecting what a person perceives to be the views of the majority, is also used by those in power to control large numbers of people, especially if it is paired with heavy punishments for the visible troublemakers who might set a diff erent example to follow. In fact, for many repressive governments, fostering a sense of loneliness among dissidents while making an example of them to scare off everyone else has long been a trusted method of ruling.

Governments and powerful people also expend great efforts to control the public sphere in their own favor because doing so is a key method through which they rule and exercise power.

The president is not a prime minister — it’s an individual making decisions, sitting atop an entire branch of government.

We must also notice the ends which the various forms of government pursue, since people choose in practice such actions as will lead to the realization of their ends.