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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Polity of Athenians and Lacedaemonians by Xenophon: contracts, the offence, by whomsoever committed,[21] lies nominally at
the door of the oligarchs who entered upon the contract. But in the
case of engagements entered into by a democracy it is open to the
People to throw the blame on the single individual who spoke in favour
of some measure, or put it to the vote, and to maintain to the rest of
the world, "I was not present, nor do I approve of the terms of the
agreement." Inquiries are made in a full meeting of the People, and
should any of these things be disapproved of, it can at once discover
ten thousand excuses to avoid doing whatever they do not wish. And if
any mischief should spring out of any resolutions which the People has
passed in council, the People can readily shift the blame from its own
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