DEMOCRACY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20229, 13 April 1929, Page 1 (Supplement)

DEMOCRACY.

ITS ENEMIES.

BY KOTAfiE.

I suppose that we are all believers in democracy. Here, at least, it is not possible even to conceive any other form of government. A free state must be ruled bv the people. Wo account that an axiom. It is the basis of our political thinking. Have wo not lately emerged from a world war, waged as we were often told, to make the world safe for democracy ? That slogan is possibly somewhat blown upon these days, but it thrilled us at the time. And though it is chiefly associated with the name of its greatest exponent, and, for all I know, oi its inventor in that graphic form, it was in the forefront of English thinking long before President Wilson saw any conflictbetween the aims of embattled Germany and the often vaunted idealism of the United States. W T ilson sent the phrase circling the earth, but the idea was a commonplace in England in 1914, when England first set herself to clarify and make precise her war aims. Zimmern, whom many regarded a3 the greatest political thinker in England during the war years, and whom the advocates of a business men's cabinet desired to see as Prime Minister, was thundering the idea in the ears of tha public before the war was three months old. War Aims. That we were to make the world safe for democracy, then, was emphatically affirmed by the best thought op both sides of the Atlantic. And what democracy was, Zimmern defined in these terms: " Democracy is not a mere form of government. It does not depend on ballot boxes or franchise laws or any constitutional machinery. These are but its trappings. Democracy is a spirit and an atmosphere, and its essence is trust in the moral instincts of the people. A tyrant is not a democrat, for lie believes in government by force; neither is a demagogue a democrat, for ho believes in government by flattery. A democratic country is a country where the government has confidence in the people, and the people in the government and in itself, and where all are united in the faith that the cause of their country is not a mere matter of individual or national self-in-terest, but is in harmony with the great moral forces which rule the destinies of mankind. No form of government is so feeble as demociaey without faith. But a democracy with faith is not merely strong; it is invincible." That is well said, and we do well to remind ourselves of it to-day. lor democracy is more challenged in the world today "than it has been since government of the people by the people and for the people became, the watchword of the free nations of the modern world. We were bound to find every political and religious faith roundly questioned in tha_ tumult of post-war Europe. The one axiom seems to be that there are no axioms. Ihe war so exhausted the moral sense of man that the prevailing attitude is one of tired cynicism. Old enthusiasms have gone to the scrap-heap. Old ideals for which men fought and died have been thrown overboard at the bidding of mere expediency. Anything is good enough that can tide'a weary nation over the days of reconstruction, that, can save something that makes for material prosperity out of the wreckage of a world and a civilisation. Mintages. Then in our enthusiasm for reconstructin:: a new world we have thrust on communities utterly unfitted for them by history and education the responsibilities of democratic government. It seemed sufficient to turn to the old absolutisms adrift and substitute for them blessings of representative government. We, ourselves, trod a long and thorny path to democracy. It needed two revolutions and centuries of grim fighting and stern education before we could use this gift of the cods. And peoples with no parliamentary history at all were supposed to bo able to shoulder full democratic responsibilities at ai moment's notice. The issue is exactly what might have been expected. Europe to-day has turned down democratic institutions with what goes very near to unanimity. And it is declared on every hand that democracy has been tried and found hopelessly wanting. However you explain it. the situation is disquieting enough. _ " Scrutator,' one of England's wisest writers on political matters", puts it thus: " The war made away with two Kaisers and two Tsars, and at the end, Europe for the first time for nearly two thousand years found itself without the title of Caesar. And he states truly enough that Lenin was a Caesar far more powerful than the old Tsars and far more contemptuous of democracy. Italy submits to Mussolini and preserves the trappings of democracy while she obediently jumps the hoops as the ringmaster cracks bis whip. Poi.tnd, Bulgaria. Greece, Jugo-Slavia, Spain have bowed down to the control of dictators. There is more than a suspicion that Era nee and Germany are simply waiting for the man. Failure? On the face of it the one clear witness of modern Europe is that democracy has failed. Even in England there are many who have always accepted democratic institutions under protest and who will find much comfort in the debacle which is so tragic a spectacle to every genuine lover of liberty * It was Dean Inge who said perhaps "the hardest things about democracy in the old days. Whether the present" situation in Europe brings any lightening to his habitual gloom I cannot say. But this is how he expressed himself in pre-war days: " Democracy is perhaps the silliest of "all fetishes that are seriously worshipped among us. 'I he method of counting heads instead of breaking them is no doubt convenient as a rough and ready test of strength; and government must rest mainly on force. It is at least arguable that democracy is at present_ a good instrument for procuring social justice and for educating citizens in civic duty. But that is really all that anyone has a right to say in its favour. _. . This superstition is "merely our old friend the divine right, of kings standing on its head • and it is even more ridiculous in that posture than in its habitual attitud<\" However, we who have been born and brought tip under democratic institutions, and to whom any reversion to dictatorship or oligarchy is unthinkable have to admit that in the eyes of the world democracy is on trial." Perhaps because it suit* the genius of our race we have too easily assumed it must he also best other peoples. That it is best for us there can be no question. Granted that it. has often proved "to be tasteless and inartistic; very gullible by impostors; generous by inst'net but greedy in principle: amiably cosmopolitan abroad but disruptive of class union at home;" granted that Carlyle and Ibsen and Inge and the rest can easily make out a strong case against it: the fact still remains that " the weaknesses commonly attributed to democracy by the pessimist are mostly weaknesses inherent in collective action of any kind—oligarchic, aristocratic. or democratic, and they could be avoided only by absolutism which is impossible in a modern state." While the British Commonwealth of nations remains, government of the people by the people for the people will not perish from the earth.