LIMITS OF DEMOCRACY

New Zealand Listener, Volume 17, Issue 435, 24 October 1947, Page 19

LIMITS OF DEMOCRACY

Sir,-The principal weakness in the organisation of UN is the reluctance of any nation to sacrifice its sovereignty. When considering the theory behind this organisation-that delegates are representative of governments, which are representative of the world’s peoplesone cardinal point must always be borne in mind: that complete democracy does not and cannot exist anywhere in the world. I give three reasons: (a) The representation of a large number of people by a very small number -necessarily results in a general policy only extremely broadly executing the will of the man in the street; and the larger the population’ the less the representation of the individual and the more approximate the execution. (b) The policy of an elected government is always susceptible to influence by on-the-spot sectional interests, with their more immediate pressure than the scattered electors’; and the larger the population the greater this susceptibility. (c) A corporate body always tends more to conservatism and tardy action than the average member of it (and even more so in the case of a parliament, than the average elector); and larger population, of course, aggravates this tendency. There is a limit to the size of population among which a democracy is reasonably practicable; and I think this goes a long way to explain various anomalies found in such a large democracy as, for instance, the United States. Democracy is a compromise; ideal representation can exist only on an island with a popu-

lation of one.

E. de

LACEY

(Timaru), |