powEi,].] SOCIOLOGY LXXXV 



We wisli to have ;i term -whicli will signifv tlie method by 

 which the officers of the <>'overnment are selected and the rules 

 by which such selection is accomplished, and for that purpose 

 I adopt the terra constitutive g•o^'ernment. I hold that this 

 department of government is coordinate with the others to be 

 explicated. 



A representative g-overnment is one in which the officers of 

 g'overnment represent the people. The manner by which they 

 become representative must be in liarmony with the third prin- 

 cipal of justice, which is equality. All persons who constitute 

 the body politic, and who acknowledge the government as 

 authoritative and seek its protection from unjust encroachment, 

 should have an equal voice, expressed by a vote, in the choice 

 of the representatives of the people who perform the functions 

 of the government. 



In tribal government ever^- person has a voice in the coun- 

 cil, and the council is also the court. The chief of the council 

 has but one vote like the other members, but he is also the 

 leader of the people when they proceed to carry out the deci- 

 sions of the council. Such a method of government is impos- 

 sible in modern civilization, where the people are many and 

 are scattered over a large region. So representati^^e govern- 

 ment is devised, in which few jjersons, compared with the 

 whole number of the people, become the officers of the govern - 

 nient, or, as they are sometimes called, the government itself. 



This is in harmon^• with that principle of evolution which is 

 called specialization, in which the functions of society are par- 

 celed among the people, so that one class of people may do 

 one class of things for all. The experience of mankind in 

 the evolution of society has resulted in an ever-increasing 

 specialization of these functions. 



In other departments of human activit}' the specialization is 

 largely voluntary with the individual, and men become farmers, 

 manufacturers, or tradesmen by their own will; Ijut whether 

 they become officers of the government or not depends not 

 upon their own will, but upon the will of others wliom they 

 are to represent. In a high stage of culture the right to choose 

 rulers is held of paramount importance. The wish to exercise 



