I genuinely believe that the current danger does not come from the government, nor from the parliament; it lies within the errors of the popular opinion.

Frédéric Bastiat
Complete Works, Volume 7, pages 404 to 405 (in French)
November 13th, 1849

This letter from November 13th, 1849 announces the debate that is starting with Pierre-Joseph Proudhon in the newspaper La Voix du Peuple (the first letter from Frédéric Bastiat had been published the day before, on November the 12th). The debate will then be published by Pierre-Joseph Proudhon under the title Interest and Principal and by Frédéric Bastiat under the title Free Credit. It includes fourteen letters expanding across 140 pages in the Complete Works and I recommend to read it indeed!

Frédéric Bastiat adds then that he considers the judgement of public opinion to be one of the major actor in politics. This is what today’s quote conveys, Frédéric Bastiat being convinced that the ignorance of the people towards economics was at the source of a lot of mistakes made by the government in conducting policies. The debate with Proudhon was one of the way he found to  educate the people in order to move on solid ground rather than misleading beliefs. We can note that this issue with ignorance and its consequences has not been solved to this day.