Liberal society requires compromise. In a liberal framework, social groups decide to take certain collective actions; these actions benefit some members of the group more than others, or even harm some members of the group. These compromises are accepted as the price of society. Indeed, liberal society would be highly unstable – and would eventually fail – if, first, the aggregate benefit from collective actions did not exceed the aggregate detriment and, second, the aggregate detriment to a significant subset of members substantially exceeded the aggregate benefit to those members. To be sustainable, liberal society must, as a whole, be collectively and individually rational. It is possible to have an illiberal society in which coercion may maintain stability even where society is collectively or individually irrational. Indeed, the development of enlightened societies and the move away from feudalism may be measured in terms of the movement from illiberal government to liberal government, from coercion to choice, and from government as ruler to government as servant.