exceptional 

 man, 



THE PROGRESSIVE STRUGGLE IN POLITICS 177 



sanctions. The last of these three facts namely, Book n 

 that the commands of the governor must be en- 

 forced by some system of restraint and punishment 

 for the disobedient is sufficiently plain to require 

 no further notice ; but the two others, obvious as 

 they really are, are not perhaps generally realised, 

 and it will be well to give a few words to them. 



That the efficient governor, though he need not The greatest 



- . . .. democrats 



always be a genius, must in some respects, at all admit that the 



i_ ,_ 1 r governor 



events, be a great or exceptional man, is or course must be an 

 admitted by the advocates of autocracy, aristocracy, 

 or oligarchy. All that requires to be shown is that 

 it is admitted also by the thinkers who are most 

 opposed to them by socialists and extreme demo- 

 crats. This admission on their part is implied in 

 the notorious importance attached by them to the 

 machinery of popular election ; for popular election 

 is simply an elaborate means of expressing the 

 opinion of the people that out of so many possible 

 governors, this one or that one is endowed with 

 greater capacity than the others. If the capacities 

 of all were equal, or if exceptional capacity was 

 not required, the personnel of the government might and also that 



\ . ? he must be 



be chosen by casting lots. Next, as to the question chosen by 

 of competition, it must be obvious to every one that competition. 

 the popular election of governors is not only an 

 admission that some few men out of many are 

 greater or more capable than the rest, but is also, 

 on the part of the candidates for election themselves, 

 competition in one of its intensest and most sharply 

 accentuated forms. 



