States are not moral agents, people are, and can impose moral standards on powerful institutions.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
States are not moral agents.
There is no system that is inherently moral if the participants themselves are not.
A statesman cannot afford to be a moralist.
In government-directed economies, the collective takes priority over the individual. The moral ideal is equal results. That approach could not be further removed from the real world.
Where there is politics or economics, there is no morality.
Every actual State is corrupt. Good men must not obey laws too well.
In a constitutional democracy the moral content of law must be given by the morality of the framer or legislator, never by the morality of the judge.
A state is better governed which has few laws, and those laws strictly observed.
Morals are in all countries the result of legislation and government; they are not African or Asian or European: they are good or bad.
Money, not morality, is the principle commerce of civilized nations.