3 o8 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



considered a democracy only in the narrow sense mentioned 

 at the beginning of this article, that it is a type of government 

 generally allowed by the people. 1 Except as regards military 

 power, it is really only a little more democratic than the 

 German system — in which similar defects exist, the German 

 Emperor, for instance, being himself the principal advertising 

 demagogue in that country. Neither system is democratic in 

 the true sense — that the people themselves shall sanction every 

 separate enactment, legislative or executive, made in their 

 name. 



The war was due, either in a positive or in a negative sense, 

 to the facts that the difficult task of government is in the 

 hands of inferior oligarchies consisting of men (not of the 

 highest intellectual type) who either profit by war or lose 

 little by it, and that it is not in the hands of the people them- 

 selves, who are always the sufferers. 



What Shall we Do, then ? 



Only two courses appear to be open, namely — 



(i) To maintain the oligarchic system, but to make such 

 reforms in it as will ensure genuine representation of the 

 people, will illegalise the party system, forbid the political 

 wire-pullers, expel the professional politician or autocrat, and 

 place the government of the country and the management of 

 State departments in the hands of the very best qualified 

 persons available ; or 



(2) To remove the representative system altogether as 

 being no longer required in these days of railways, posts, and 

 telegraphs, and to subject every important legislative and 

 executive enactment, and the appointment of heads of the 

 great departments, to the entire people themselves by refer- 

 endum — thus making the people themselves really responsible 

 for their own welfare. 



The writer is by no means convinced of the feasibility of 

 the former alternative or of the advisability of the latter one ; 

 but hopes to discuss the matter impartially in future articles. 



1 For the scientific reader, especially a mathematical one, it is scarcely necessary 

 to argue at length that the majority-decision of the people upon any particular 

 proposed measure cannot be ascertained at all by the methods of voting and 

 election now in use. A member of Parliament represents his constituency only, 

 not the decision of his constituency upon individual measures in detail. 



