Should it be exercised on behalf of individual liberty?
Should it be exercised on behalf of social equality?
Is there any way in which it can be exercised on behalf both of liberty and equality?
Hamilton and the constitutional liberals asserted that the state should interfere exclusively on behalf of individual liberty; but Hamilton was no democrat and was not outlining the policy of a democratic state.

In point of fact democracies have never been satisfied with a definition of democratic policy in terms of liberty.

Not only have the particular friends of liberty usually been hostile to democracy, but democracies both in idea and behavior have frequently been hostile to liberty; and they have been justified in distrusting a political regime organized wholly or even chiefly for its benefit.

"La Liberte," says Mr.Emile Faguet, in the preface to his "Politiques et Moralistes du Dix-Neuvieme Siecle"-- "La Liberte s'oppose a l'Egalite, car La Liberte est aristocratique par essence.

La Liberte ne se donne jamais, ne s'octroie jamais; elle se conquiert.