[1] We need not waste any time upon those who talk about such and such a
form of government being good because “it works.” The use of such
language connotes that the user of it is fatigued by the effort of
thought. For what is “working,” _i.e._ successful action, in any sphere?
The attainment of certain ends in that sphere. What are those ends in a
State? If material well-being, then there is an end to talk of
patriotism, the nation, public opinion and the rest of it which, as we
all very well know, men always have regarded and always will regard as
the supreme matters of public interest. If the end is not material
well-being, but a sense of political freedom and of the power of the
citizen to react upon the State, then to say that an institution “works”
though apparently not democratic, is simply to say that under such and
such conditions that institution achieves the ends of democracy most
nearly. In other words, to contrast the good “working” of an institution
superficially undemocratic with democratic theory is meaningless. The
institution “works” in proportion as it satisfies that political sense
which perfect democracy would, were it attainable, completely satisfy.