riving to gain the support of a majority of the people; and the
grounds on which it appeals for support are that the measures it
proposes are the best for the country, and that the men it puts forward
are the best men for passing those measures into law and carrying on the
administration of the country. This constant agitation, and this mutual
competition to devise new measures, and to bring forward new men,
prevent stagnation. Both sides of every leading public question of the
day are presented in the rival party policies, and the people are
invited to decide between them. The forces on which the parties rely to
move the people are enthusiasm for measures and enthusiasm for
men--party and personality, or, in other words, organization and
leadership. It is in opposing these forces to counteract the selfish and
anti-social passions that party government acquires its virtue. By
appealing to their higher nature it induces the people to subordinate
their class prejudices to the general welfare, and by setting before
them definite moral ideals, and appealing to them by the force of
personality, it raises the character of public opinion, and moulds
individual and national character to an extent that is seldom
appreciated. Here, then, is the key of human progress. Direct
democracies may hold together so long as there are external enemies to
induce the people to sink their differences in the common interest, or
so long as there is a slave caste to do the menial work, as in the
ancient democracies; but representative democracy offers the only hope
of welding together a free people into a united whole. The unrestrained
rule of the majority under direct democracy must degenerate into the
tyranny of the majority. Instead of the equality of political power
which it promises, the minority is deprived of all power. Representative
democracy, on the other hand, deprives the people of the personal
exercise of political power, in order to save them from the free play of
their self-assertive passions, but still leaves to every man an equality
of influence in deciding the direction of progress. Thus every man is
induced to express his opinion as to the direction of progress; and the
party policy is the resultant direction of progress of all the party
electors, and therefore represents their organized opinion. Now, bear in
mind that the true direction of progress is not known, and can only be
found out by constant experiment directed by the mo