THE SECURITY OF EXTRA-LEGAL UNPOPULAR GOVERNMENT BY POLITOCRATS IN THE
UNITED STATES
Extra-legal unpopular government rests fundamentally upon the fact that
a few are able to cast the ballots of the voters for them. This is
accomplished through the process of advising and directing the voter
how to vote. The opportunity to do this at all is presented whenever
the voter is politically ignorant and still insists upon voting with
an apparent show of intelligence. The opportunity to advise and direct
the voter how to vote is presented on a large scale when the entire
electorate, no matter what its average intelligence may be, is made
politically ignorant concerning a majority of the candidates for
office. The decentralization of governmental power, as manifested in
the multiplication of elective offices and the frequency of elections,
has placed upon the voter--even when he is a most intelligent man--a
burden which he does not and practically cannot carry. He therefore
goes to the polls politically ignorant and the essential condition
is presented upon which the rise and establishment of an extra-legal
unpopular government rests. It may be observed, therefore, of all
efforts to disrupt and destroy a system of extra-legal unpopular
government, that so long as the assault upon it consists of a more
frequent appeal to the electorate on occasions of ever-lessening
importance, the more the assault will in reality contribute to the
condition which makes the existence of some extra-legal government
unassailable.
The growth and security of extra-legal unpopular government rests
upon the increase of the political burdens upon the voter. Every
political theory, every governmental bogey, and every practical
innovation which tends toward the multiplication of elective offices,
the frequency of elections and the consequent decentralization of the
power of government, whether state or local, must be advocated and
encouraged by the politocrat. Every effort must be made by him to
foster and maintain the popular conviction that the centralization and
concentration of governmental power in the hands of a few, even though
those few hold office as a whole at the mere whim and pleasure of a
majority of the electorate, is the real basis of unpopular government
and inimical to free institutions. He must make every effort to foster
and maintain the popular conviction that the only hope of popular
government and free institutions lies in as many appeals to the
electorate on as many occasions as possible. This idea may be conveyed
in convincing and epigrammatical form by repeating the wisdom that the
cure for the ills of democracy is more democracy. The electorate should
never be allowed to forget that by reason of the constant appeals to
them they are ruling, and that whatever happens they are responsible.
In short, the security of unpopular government lies in the maintaining
of the popular conviction that our present constitution and laws are
sound. The bulwark of unpopular government in the United States today
is the man who believes that our institutions are fundamentally
satisfactory; that in the main our scheme of government is the best
that was ever devised or can be devised; that it is the fault of the
electorate that bad men are in office; that the electorate at the last
election put the machine out of business, or came near it, and is going
to do better the next time; that if the machine is not disrupted,
then the people themselves are at fault and richly deserve what they
get; that if any improvements are needed they will be found in the
more frequent appeals to the electorate through such devices as the
primaries, the initiative, the referendum, and the recall. Extra-legal
unpopular government must encourage men of this stamp and teach these
fundamental principles to its supporters. While such men represent the
views of the masses extra-legal unpopular government will be safe.
Unpopular government in the United States will be secure until our
present popular convictions about the science of government are
reversed and popular and persistent opinions prevail that the ability
of the electorate to vote intelligently is limited; that the moment the
voter is called upon to fill any other than a few offices which wield
great power and are therefore conspicuous and important, he becomes
politically ignorant, even though he be an unusually intelligent man;
that it makes no difference that this may be his fault, for the fact
remains and will remain; that it is this artificially stimulated
political ignorance of the voter that delivers his vote to a permanent
organization maintained for the purpose of directing him how to vote;
that to prevent this artificially stimulated political ignorance on the
part of the voter he must be called upon to exercise such a limited
voting power as he is able to use with intelligence. This means that
the power of government must be centralized and concentrated in the
hands of a few officeholders of the legal government who are prevented
from perpetuating their power and so establishing an unpopular
government by being at all times subject to be ousted or kept in
office at the pleasure of the majority of the electorate. The moment
the real government, be it legal or extra-legal, can be swept out of
office as a whole at a popular election easily initiated, which makes
the existence and action of the real government a direct issue, the
most effective means yet devised for preventing a real government from
becoming unpopular--i.e., maintaining the selfish exercise of power in
the face of popular disapproval--has been found. When these principles
of government are received by the masses with the same conviction
that they now support the theory of government that a minimum amount
of power should reside in any one officer or department of the legal
government and that appeals to the electorate should be upon as many
matters and as often as possible, the downfall of extra-legal unpopular
government will be imminent.