Unlike Bentham, Mill saw little reason for confidence in democracy as a stay on the oppressive hand of government.
From The Moral Foundations of Politics by Ian Shapiro
I understand the sentence as this: Democracy is a stay. This stay is on oppressive hands of government. Am I wrong about this? Help me please to understand the sentence.
My another question is: Does the oppressive hand of government means the hand of oppressive government or it just means what it says?