ment which limits the power of the majority might promote the
general interests of society more effectually than one controlled by the
majority, if the checks were in the hands of a class of superior wisdom
and virtue. But in practice such a government, instead of being better
than those for whom it exists, is almost invariably worse. The complex
and confusing system of checks, with the consequent diffusion of power
and absence of direct and definite responsibility, is much better
adapted to the purposes of a self-seeking, corrupt minority than to the
ends of good government. The evils of such a system which are mainly
those of minority domination must be carefully distinguished from those
which result from majority control. The critics of American political
institutions have as a rule ignored the former or constitutional aspect
of our political evils, and have held majority rule accountable for much
that our system of checks has made the majority powerless to prevent.
The evils of our party system, having their roots in the lack of popular
control over the party machine, are thus largely a consequence of the
checks on the power of the majority contained in the Constitution
itself. In other words, they are the outcome, not of too much, but of
too little democracy.

The advocates of political reform have directed their attention mainly
to the party machine. They have assumed that control of the party
organization by the people would give them control of the government. If
this view were correct, the evils which exist could be attributed only
to the ignorance, want of public spirit and lack of capacity for
effective political co-operation on the part of the people. But as a
matter of fact this method of dealing with the problem is open to the
objection that it mistakes the effect for the cause. It should be
clearly seen that a system of constitutional checks, which hedges about
the power of the majority on every side, is incompatible with majority
rule; and that even if the majority controlled the party organization,
it could control the policy of the government only by breaking down and
sweeping away the barriers which the Constitution has erected against
it. It follows that all attempts to establish the majority in power by
merely reforming the party must be futile.

Under any political system which recognizes the right of the majority to
rule, responsibility of the government to the people is the end and aim
of all th