246 



ARISTOCRA C Y AND E VOL UTION 



Book in 



why. then, 



is democracy 



specially asso- 



dated with the 



demand in 



least? 



Because H is 



the only sphere 



of activity in 

 many can 



of supply at 



the power of the many. The result is that, whilst 

 the many do in reality exert, through their spon- 

 taneously similar demand for certain social results, 

 an influence on legislation which in certain respects 

 is paramount, the political theorist, neglecting this 

 fact altogether, confines himself to asserting their 

 power in the demand for political means the kind 



. r i i i 



of demand in respect ot which they are most 



n 11 .\ 



influenced by others. 



Now what, let us ask, is the explanation of this 

 fact ? How does it come that in government a 

 power is attributed to the many which is, even by 

 recent socialists, not attributed to them in economic 

 production? The reason is that over the processes 

 of economic production the many can exercise no 

 control at all, but that over the devising of govern- 

 mental measures they can exercise some, which, 

 though absolutely small, is yet, by comparison, 

 large. 



Thus, for instance, though the structure and 



_ . , 1-1 



manufacture of watches is in one sense determined 

 by the many, because the manufacture of those 

 wa tches only can be continued permanently which 

 satisfy the many, and which the many will consent 

 to buy, it would be impossible for any watchmaker 

 to produce good watches at all if his workmen 

 were constantly required to be altering or readjust- 

 ing the escapements in order to introduce some 

 "dodge" devised by any man in the street. But in 

 politics this is not the case. The influence of the 

 men in the street, though it can exert itself through 



