Is :DEMOCRACY - A FAILURE ? " [To the Editor
of THE SPECTATOR.] Su:,—The authors of the two articles against and for democracy in your issues of March .2-fth and 31st, although starting from different premises, expound essentially the Rime doctrines and maintain similar cardinal tenets. Perhaps the best monograph on the subject in its general outline is Pericles' funeral oration at the beginning of the Peloponesian War. Yet the city-state of Athens was rendered possible, not because of her laws, the rhetorical achievement of one of the most famous of her sons or the intellectual brilliance of sophists and philosophers, but because of the general high level of the cultural development of her citizens. The problems confronting them were less complex and although responsibility was delegated the citizens would take an essential and effective part in the organization and conduct of the State in its various activities.
The world has been and always will be led or served (the terms are almost synonymous) by its natural leaders, viz., intellectual aristocrats. The success of any sane political institution and its inherent capacity to fulfil the ideal of all human political organizations, viz., to ensure- the greatest good for the greatest number, -will be achieved when- the national genius is ripe for absorbing great truths and being moved by deep loyalties and noble aspirations.--I am, Sir, &c.,
Previous page
