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Legislative Research: Essential Roles and Standards of Excellence

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 February 2019

William H. Robinson
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Extract

“Knowledge willforever govern ignorance; and if a people would govern themselves, theymustfirst arm themselves with the power that knowledge brings.”

James Madison (4th President of the United States, and credited with being the primary author of the U.S. Constitution)

The founding fathers of the U.S. Constitution had an abiding faith in the power that knowledge bestows. The notion that “knowledge is power” dates back to the teachings of philosophers (from Bacon to Nietzsche), and was understood and practiced long before that by statesmen, scoundrels, and spies of all ages. The ancient Chinese ruled for millennia by maintaining a monopoly on knowledge and education.

Type
Articles
Information
International Journal of Legal Information , Volume 29 , Issue 3 , Winter 2001 , pp. 560 - 574
Copyright
Copyright © 2001 by the International Association of Law Libraries 

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