THIS DEMOCRACY

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 45, 16 November 1940, Page 10

THIS DEMOCRACY

The Foundation Principles A SENSE OF JUSTICE AND OF KIGHT

(By

Lux.).

There are many definitions of “democracy” in daily use, ami at election time some of them are shouted from the hustings as though they were the fine "owering of the candidate’s deepest thought. If mi one seems to know exactly what it was that Mr. Gladstone said in 1867, everybody knows that Abraham Lincoln once 'spoke about “government of the people, by the people, for the people.” If only that principle were applied, we are told, then war would cease on this distressed planet, but when one asks how it could be applied to, say, New Guinea, then the conversation seems to drag, and the subject is soon changed. People forget that Lincoln postulated an educated democracy. Perhaps the best definition is that used by Lord Morley—that democracy is a form of government. It is one among many and cannot claim to be either the most stable or the most continuous. And, of course, democratic government is no new thing. Practically every form was tried by the Greek States long before the Christian era. But however interesting may be a discussion on these things, the fact remains that in British countries there is no alternative to the democratic form of government. It is, admittedly, the most difficult form, but British people have a remarkable capacity for making it work. That is not the case in many countries and today, as Thomas Mann, one of the ablest of the German exiles, has said, many people “feel that democracy is not an assured possession; that it has become precarious to take it for granted.” That, happily, is not the position in British communities but there is always need for vigilance—the price of liberty. “It is possible to imagine a society which could correctly be described as a democracy,” writes Ramsay Muir, “wherein an organized majority, consisting perhaps exclusively of citizens of a single class or type, might exercise a tyrannical sway over a helpless minority. Such a society, though it would be a democracy, would not be in any genuine sense either free or self-governing for the minority would have no freedom.” That is the starting point iu examining the record of any Government in a British country—freedom. It is not simply a strong dislike of being ordered about or Interfered with, but is something positive. This is the attitude: “A belief that the kind of life and creative effort "which freedom makes possible are worth more than all the efficient results which can be attained by making society a machine and people in it cogs in a machine.” This freedom to develop human character, for which progressive people stand, is buttressed at all points by what is termed the rule of law. This Is a dual thing, with a positive and a negative side. The first concerns the rights of the Individual and means, in the words of one authority, “that no one may be deprived of life, liberty or property except for a breach of the law, which must be proved in open court.” The other restricts the individual and means that “everyone is equally punishable for a breach of the law and nobody stands above the law.” There are two points calling for special notice. One is that to ensure true freedom all must have access to courts of justice, and the other is that, in a democracy, no one stands above the law. In future articles, in which it is intended to examine the nature, application and results of legislation enacted since the Socialist Barty assumed office in the Dominion, these particular aspects must, of necessity, figure prominently. If it can be shown that any attempt has been made to bar access to the courts of the land, or that individuals have been placed outside I he scope of the law, then Hie menace to the democratic form of government will be clear. It would lie no answer to say that these things had been done by representatives of a majority. A majority can smash the democratic ideal and do it effectively. All human beings, it lias been said, possess iu some degree the gifts necessary for politics and that the gifts required are a sense of justice and a sense of right. There is the basis. No legislation that runs counter to justice and right could bo possible in a democracy.