As this understood, the true antithesis of democracy is not monarchy or oligarchy. but ab solutism, i.e. dominion exercised over the mass of the people by an individual or a group of indi viduals, however constituted, not responsible to the people nor hound by law or custom to consult their wishes, Democracy. on the other hand, is popular government —government actually di rected and controlled by the people, under what ever eoustitutional forms. The terms monarchy, oligarchy, a od republic properly describe the form, and not the essential character of a govern ment. A democracy may exist under both of these forms. A limited monarchy, like that of England, under which the power of the State is actually exercised by the people through their chosen representatives, may be more truly demi). eral it. than a republic, like the recent government of the Transvaal, in which the actual power is .1 tillalleia I I r ll II it il'al 01 igar •11\ like .W11.'111.111 ill hi 11411 it tr.. le• lee a ,I11:111 minority of the male itiliali of the 'state.
_\ tient' in been called to the fact that a ,ocial principle of Modern oi explain, the be the ancient :11111 the 111011C111 of political demoeracy. The notion of a, It community of free ruling the not being based on any conception of I he equality of till men. offended b% the \ in the Stale Of 11 labor ing ile I/I' free, anti of a large resident alien population. which together outnumbered the political citizen, ten 10 1111e, and which iyrrr C1111,111\ 1•\1•111110.1 from pan licipation in the goo eminent. The modern idea of a political democ racy. on the other hand. being derived front the sDrial of the equal worth of all Weill ber, of the State. kith 1101111111_r, than the substantial participation of the great body id the people in the affairs of the State. It Teel, upon the theory that the people, their hap pine— living the true end of government, are better judges of what will conduce than i, any individmil or group of individ nals likely to by any hereditary or self selecti e process—a sound and doctrine. which, lloweiI•1, ill political eXill'EiVIICO Hills 100 inlu the 11•111' furor the aiiiiert ion that for public one opinion is as good a, that 44 other man. and that all men are entitled to equal weight in political affairs.
It i, to England more than to any other nation. even than the United that the modern world realization of the democratic ideal ill of political action. The two great revo hition-i—that whirl' re-tilted in the creation of the Commonwealth, and that which finally ex pelled the Stuart,—NVere popular in char, Wier, Though the Parliament rrough ont period, and until the reforms of IS:3.2
and ISItT„ an ari-toeratii• body, re,ponsiv•nes, to public opinion and it-. to royal pretensions made it the type of a popular representative assembly in );trope. Before the middle of the nineteenth venturc• every ble European State, with the exeeption of and Turkey. had adopted It itiltion limit ing the power of the t'rown, and vesting It eon Dt 1)4)1111e:11 powerin the people, and in iuo.t o f Olen] a legislature of t he parliamentary or Brit i-h ty was adopted. h Ili nowhere on the t'imlinent, excepting in Switzerland and in Norway and Sweden. ha- IMP' 111:11' government reached a high degree of ef tieiene,v Or attained any con,iderahle ineastire of lien ill England the complete triumph of the democrat ie principl• 1111, been delayed, both in piddle- society. by the of the t ;mi. pre,erv, number of legal right, and privileges 1« a social on birth and inherited wealth, and which gite- that chi-, a preponderating in thienve in the political organization of the Slate.
Den oeracy in the 'United 1, the off,pring of the dennwrali• forces in political The radical of Eng lish repuldie.iiii--in and NV1iiggery in the seven 1.4.11111 al 1 venitiries dominaled 11.r ut of the (•de Hie. in \n erica dictated their political deceluptu•nt. The plicity of colonial lite and the absence of considerable of the •ngli,11 tvaije (-lasso, promoted the orderly gr4o‘tli 4,1 homogeneous Which stood clearly re• vealed when the of ,(partition from the mother country came. The speedy adoption of a written constitution. however, fixed the form, of American and in far Ill t Ile l'N 01111 i"n of it, ideal,. The re• stilt is that in of political action the United State, is nolr democratic than t:reat Britain, In spirit the English democracy is doubtless niore tonsellati‘e Ilian that of the [tided State,. but it is doubtful how long it will remain ,o. See IZEPI'111.1t.
lost of the are Ito, tile of democratic government. For tile Illicit-Ill and mediaeval view. see 1)111111111g, instory Pidifical ncical and .1/ciiitcru/(New York, P.103) for the modern viesv, constilt: 1)o We, //camerae!, in .1 OP lira (1S35) : AlOt• ley, II i.storic l'roare sof of A nee rican p•neo•racr/ ( 181;91; Preeman. Cotaparatice Po/ities ( Alay, mocracy in. Europe' (1STS): Alain., 1'01e:dor ilorcrn me al (London. IS85) ; l'Ile .1 merieun ('olanioal•ea/th (.2.41 ed., 1.4)11(14,11 and Sow York) ; Democracy and (London. 191;) : Burgess. Sri eftee i n6011111 'Mir (1111,(011, 1891) ; \Voodrmv ;4101( : I:le in cells of His torical yid l'111(•1 l'IlliiiCS (110:1011, 1892) ,