DEMOCRACY.

Evening Star, Issue 20510, 14 June 1930, Page 14

DEMOCRACY.

When we strive to achieve an ideal that system seems to bo perfect in our eyes. When wo have achieved it we tend to realise that it is not the promised land, and all sorts of imperfections become evident. So it is to-day with democracy. - During the nineteenth century the Chartists and other political reformers fought hard with the great purpose that everyone should get the vote and have a say in the government of his country. Gradually the leaders came to see more and more that democracy was the only fair political system—almost everyone became a democrat—and to-day the battle is won. But already the keener minds aro realising that its results have not been all that were expected of it. Critics, many of them quite honest and fair minded, aro showing up the weaknesses and imperfections of democracy—at least as it has been achieved. And on every hand the question is being asked: What next? What is the next stage in social evolution? In many cases, of course, scepticism of democracy is based merely on an impulsive reaction against its many failures. Then, too, there are the Fascists, Bolshevists, the “ open conspirators,” and the like, who inherently believe in class rub because of their egotism. This leads them on to dreams of exclusive power, reposing in themselves as a selfrighteous elect. Revolutionary expediency is rationalised into anti-democratic theory by both Communists and Fascists. But the dissatisfaction with the present forms of democracy has also

real defects for its basis. Professor J. L. Gray sums these up as follows: First as a cause of the inefficiency ’ of democratic systems is the unreality of the political scene. “ The play seems futile and the players mere puppets. Somewhere other than in the sovereign legislative assembly, wo feel sure, the themes are dictated and the machinery' put in motion. In bankers’ council chambers, and in the state rooms of Atlantic liners, things arc decided which fire a train of consequences which Governments are powerless to prevent, even when they would.” People have an uneasy feeling that often the rulers of industry and finance are the real sovereigns, not Parliament. Social power often rests on economic control, which is outside of our political institutions. Mr G. B. Shaw’s new play, ‘ The Apple Cart,’ portrays how a fatal division between political and economic control vitiates the purposes of good government. Industry, however, is not democratic, and if political control wont to the capitalists where would our democracy be? If, on the other hand, the democratic State controlled industry, would there be efficiency? The second problem in modern democracy arises because we have not yet satisfactorily solved the business of representation. Up to the present democracy has been confused with representative government, and the weaknesses of the latter have redounded to the discredit of the former. Yet the representative system is only a means of achieving the aims of a democratic political philosophy, and there are many forms which it may take. This is primarily a problem of mechanism. Man already in reality governs himself through many other groups and institutions besides the State. Sometimes he feels that ho has too many decisions to make, and “ he recoils in disgust from the practice of his political duties, confused by their very multiplicity.” Then there are those who would push democracy too far—the enthusiasts who want the referendum and the recall, and a compulsory exorcise of the franchise. Professor Gray points out that “ the defence of democracy only requires that men should be given the opportunity of voting, as they should be given the chance of entering the vocation to which they are most suited and of pursuing the cultural interests which appeal to them.” Rather than compel every man to vote, wo should ■work so that every adult will be both able and eager to participate actively in government by adjusting the magnitude of the issues put before him to his capacity to comprehend and judge them. Finally, there is the inefficiency of democracies due to the disrepute into ivhich statesmanship has fallen, resulting in the too frequent inferior personnel of political rulers. The aristocratic principle that it was the duty of a certain class to govern has gone. No other coherent principle of selection has been substituted for, it. Politics give little personal satisfaction, not merely as far as monetary reward is concerned, but as far as sense of real power is concerned, and satisfaction from getting important tilings well done. Professor Gray concludes; “A revolution is required in bur view of the. character of the State. It has been a police State and a class State. ... The new view must regard it as a moral agent, whose task is to make a constructive contribution to the common good, working on tbe twin criterions of justice and efficiency.”