use only for electioneering, with a view to the spoils, and

could not be maintained in Congress. The parties which it

formed constituted nothing but agglomerates brought to-

gether mechanically, the ill-assorted elements of which, left

to themselves in the House, sought only to promote the

private interests which they represented. In the absence of

common principles or divergent ideas, an understanding

between these interests is arrived at by means of "deals" ;

Congress lives in an atmosphere of unprincipled compro-

mise; there is no regular opposition to counterbalance the

predominant party. As the traditional see-saw of parties

does not work, a remedy for the misgovernment of rulers is

sought in Lynch methods: "tidal waves," "landslides."

The separation of powers wrongly considered as the main

cause of the failure of “party government." In the upshot,

party, reduced to an electoral contrivance by the Caucus, is

unable to serve as an instrument of government

IV. The decline of party confirmed by that of the political leader-

ship, its motive power. How the men capable of leading are

disqualified for public life under the Caucus régime and are

little countenanced by American social conditions. How

those who enter it shirk responsibility; want of civic courage

in public men; they have ceased to be leaders of men; the

leadership is wielded by outsiders in an irregular and spas-

modic manner. How the responsibility of public men is all

the less real that there is no control to enforce it; indiffer-

ence of the public; merit is unnoticed just as much as de-

merit. How the action of public men also lacks the advantage

of continuity, and how they lose their ascendency with their

political position. How the statesman has been ousted by

the political machinist .

V. How party, instead of giving an expression to public opinion,
distorted it. How the external conformity established by
the Caucus weakened the citizen's private judgment and
individual responsibility, made him shifty and timorous,
developed in him acquiescence in political abuses, and led
him into connivance at them. If at the same time party
discipline has discharged the function of a regulator in a
young and exuberant democracy, it has proved above all
a reactionary force; it tended to shackle the free play of the
public mind, to crystallize opinion, in a community which
was already only too inclined to an ultra Conservatism by
its mercantile character as well as by the constitution which
impeded the spirit of innovation in political and social life.
Again, the same force of "regularity," which curbed public
opinion by keeping it imprisoned in old formulas and old

PAGI

554

560

titles, thrust on the party, against its will, new programmes,

however extravagant, when the Organization thought it

would benefit by them. In the upshot, the Organization

set up a factitious opinion in the form of parties, and left

real opinion no means of asserting itself but open revolt

against the parties. Yet even when victorious, opinion

could assert itself by measures of repression only, it was

left shorn of its most essential power, the power of pre-

vention .

VI. How party, having failed in its legitimate functions, served as

a lever for private interests in their designs on the public

weal. How it promoted the advent of plutocracy. How the

power of plutocracy has proved pernicious especially in the

political sphere, and how it has taken up its abode there

with the aid of the party Organization. How public opinion,

not recognizing the political sources of the money power,

fastened on its economic effects. Movement against the

"trusts." How again the power of money in the State,

appearing as an irresistible force, contributed to the weak-

ening of civic sentiment. How the alliance of plutocracy

PAGE

566

572

with the Machine has strengthened the latter's power and

helped to degrade popular government.

VII. How account for the fact that the American people have let

the government slip from their hands? They were wholly

absorbed in material preoccupations. The working of polit-

ical institutions was subordinated to money-making; the

abuses of public life tolerated so long as they did not entail

too serious pecuniary loss; de minimis praetor non curat;

generosity of the American. He is insensible to the effects,

even of a material kind, which the political disorders threaten

to produce in the future; he looks only at immediate re-

sults and present advantages; he is kept in these views by

the boundless optimism which is the national faith, and

constantly stimulated by it in his materialistic aspirations . 576

VIII. How the materialistic spirit deadened the civic conscience with
the aid of idealism itself, which is by no means wanting to
the American. How his idealism all went into patriotic
feeling. How the idea of the Union, of the national terri-
tory, cast a spell over his mind. How the grandeur of the
natural features of the continent and the efforts of man
who improved it fostered his patriotic sensibility. How the
third factor in the creation of the New World, liberty,
which revealed itself as "mystic and indefinite," became
also an element of the patriotic cult and confirmed the
national pride inspired by material successes. How the
worship of country (“our country, right or wrong”) and a

PAGE

patriotism of the second degree, not less fetish-like, that of

party, did duty for the citizen's civic conscience, and enabled

him to serve the ideal and pay off his civic obligations, in

every-day life, at small expense
581

IX. How the cult of party, which suited the civic piety of the

busy American, corresponded also to the innermost tenden-

cies of his mind, moulded by the Puritan spirit in a jealous

sectarianism, and, on the other hand, harassed by the need

which the American feels of herding with his fellows in

order to counteract his moral isolation in this society of the

New World, levelled, scattered, and destitute of fixed grooves

offering a support to the individual

. 587

X. How has the Republic been able to withstand the dissolvent

action of the Caucus? Exceptional conditions which have

lessened the import of the fact that the government has

slipped away from the people. The rôle of government in

the economy of American life is insignificant. The deterio-

ration of the public service was mitigated by the simplicity

of the administrative business. The harm done to the public

purse was made up for by the unbounded resources of the

country. The usurpation of power by the bosses and the

machines proved limited in its effects, owing to the special

character of their desires, which aimed not so much at the

liberty of the citizens as at the resources offered by the elec-

tion business, owing also to the protection with which indi-

vidual rights are surrounded by the constitution, to the

federative organization of the Republic, which is but little

favourable to the rise of an autocracy or of a political oli-

garchy, and, finally, owing to the material facilities for escap-

ing oppression offered by a vast and thinly peopled continent.

The invasion of the State by plutocracy has not aimed either.

at popular liberties, and has not, at least until quite recently,

impeded the free pursuit of wealth by the individual. The

decline of active public spirit was mitigated by the citizen's

faith in his potential strength and in that of public opinion

in general

XI. Dwindling of the moral and material resources which neutral-
ized or abated the bad effects of the Caucus régime; exhaus-
tion of the free lands; growing complexity of social life and
of the functions of government; necessity of stricter regula-
tion and decrease of the vis medicatrix of liberty; decline of
personal character under the influence of the new economic
factors which sap the economic independence of the citizen
as well as under that of the religious and the political scep-
ticism which is coming over him. The destructive action of
the Caucus will no longer be held in check by the spontane-

591

PAGE

ous play of natural forces; an active resistance must be

offered to it all along the line

XII. The task of breasting the current of the Caucus régime is a

gigantic, but not a hopeless one. Hopes held out by the

progress already realized in the last twenty years; awaken-

ing of the public conscience, growing interest in the public

welfare, relaxation of party ties, more enlightened voting.

Decisive share of two factors in the progress achieved and

to be achieved: the development of general culture, in

particular by the Universities, and the improvement of

political methods. Defect of the mechanical conceptions

on which most of the attempts at reform were based.

Failure of the experiments which adopted the basis of

stereotyped parties and relative success of those which

paid no attention whatever to parties. The new methods

of political action and the future of democracy.

596

. 599

I. A comprehensive view of the phenomena observed discloses

at first only confusion and contradiction: the triumph of

the autonomous individual, victorious along the whole line

of political life, ends in making his sovereignty a vain

semblance and the public weal the prey of private inter-

ests, amid the indifference of the community at large.

How this miscarriage is not tantamount to an irrevocable

condemnation of democracy. The paths by which the

new society moved towards its goal. Narrowly indi-

vidualist conception which presided over its birth. Preju-

dice created in favour of the elective system. Effects of

the elective régime carried to excess. The lesson which

it conveys as to the value and the limits of the elective

principle in free governments

II. Defective application of the electoral system. Universal
suffrage was instituted with the character of a synthesis
not preceded by an analysis. The public authority having
neglected to provide for the operations of the preliminary
electoral phase, extra-legal organizations laid hold of them.
Harm done thereby to the public weal. Tardy and in-
complete intervention of the State. The right and the
duty of the State to take the preliminary electoral pro-
cedure under its exclusive protection. Its action, how-
ever, cannot go beyond the purely formal operations of

607

This

PAGE

612

the preparatory electoral stage. But the inadvertence of
the State which let in the extra-legal organizations has
enabled them also to assume, in addition to those opera-
tions, the task of forming and co-ordinating the opinions
of the citizens, and they discharged it in such a way as
to make the elective régime and democratic government
miscarry

III. The extra-legal organizations try to found democratic gov-

ernment on the old party system, which is out-of-date,

artificial, and irrational. Theological and ecclesiastical

character of its conceptions. The advent of the régime of

liberty and of a complex civilization deprives the dualist

system of permanent parties of all genuine basis.

dualism is just as little founded in the human mind. The

methods of the party system are as artificial and reac-

tionary as its principles. The two modern practices which

it has introduced into its methods - popular election and

association: the first does but aggravate the difficulties

entailed by the exaggeration of the elective method; the

second, being applied on the basis of universal association

absorbing the citizen's whole personality, makes the volun-

tary and conscious co-operation of the members impossible 615

IV. How the party system, democratized in appearance only,

has warped the spring of democratic government by dis-

couraging, through the formalism which it set up, the

citizen's independence of mind, the energy of his will,

and the autonomy of his conscience. How this political

formalism allowed the weaknesses inherent in democratic

government to increase, especially the want of public spirit

which characterizes democracies. How it combined with

the economic and social conditions of modern civilization

and with the fond belief in their power peculiar to the

members of the sovereign people to lull the vigilance of

the citizen.

V. How the conventional notion of party has diminished the
strength of the power of social intimidation which con-
stitutes the great superiority of democratic government.
The weapon of moral constraint wielded by public opinion
has been wrested from the citizens and turned against
them by party loyalty. In any event, public opinion,
even when roused, asserted its power at intervals only
and in a repressive way; its preventive power remained
in abeyance. How, on the other hand, the conventional
notion of party has accentuated the weakness which is
latent in the power of social intimidation by allowing the
brute pressure of public opinion to weigh heavily on every-

622