THE GUIDE VERSUS THE REPRESENTATIVE 179 



power is taken from him when the majority cease Book n 

 to be satisfied, not only because they are of opinion 

 that he governs badly, but because they are of 

 opinion that a Disraeli will govern better. A demo- 

 cracy, in fact, and an oligarchy, so far as competi- 

 tion is concerned, differ merely in the way in which 

 the competitors are admitted to the arena, and in 

 the number and character of the jury which awards 

 the prizes. 



Since, then, with regard to the points just dealt A11 P artie s also 



J agree that laws 



with namely, the necessity for great men as must be en- 

 governors, for the selection of the fittest of them ^ penalties" 3 

 by competition, and for the use of coercion and 

 punishment as a means of enforcing orders there is 

 no essential difference between the most extreme 

 democracy and its opposites, in what does that practi- 

 cal or theoretical difference between them consist, by 

 which most undoubtedly the former is distinguished 

 from the latter ? The only essential point of differ- 

 ence between them lies, not in their respective 

 schemes or theories of the machinery of govern- 

 ment, or of their methods of electing governors, 

 but in their theory of the powers which election Democrats are 



, , i A i i peculiar only in 



communicates to those elected. An elected governor, their theory 

 whether chosen from a large or a small class, is, greatness 30 * 

 according to the aristocratic or oligarchic theory, E'^overnors 

 chosen because he is personally wiser than those is a P erce P tive 



J f and executive 



who elect him ; and it is theoretically his mission, greatness, 



... . , ,. . f ,, , . . , which will 



within very wide limits, to follow his own judgment, enable them to 

 not that of the electors. The democratic theory spontaneous 6 

 is the very reverse of this. The elected governor, Jjjjjf of the 



