CHAPTER XI

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.