What is democracy Author:Liberty Hyde Bailey Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: 4. Certain Main Considerations If the reader lias followed the discussion thus far, he is well advised of the democratic principle, for he has undoubtedly cha... more »llenged many of the contrasts, he has visioned for himself certain lines of necessary public action, and has made his own catalogue of hindrances, if we are to have democracies worth saving. Yet must I call attention to certain fundamental ideas, which may be set out by themselves, although they are all implied or even stated in what has gone before. I mention only a plain dozen of them. A few clear principles must be comprehended, and action must be based on them rather than on the accumulation of precedents. It is often necessary to sweep away the impedimenta of precedents, one practice having piled on another until the principle is forgotten. War knocks over these piles of usages, if it is severe enough and of long duration, for persons and institutions must then return to the few essentials. With certain timid types of minds, nothing is allowable to be done unless it has been done before; and once having been done, it should never be changed: thus is all hope hidden and progress made impossible. It is unfortunate that so many of these routiners find their way into public responsibilities. Herein lies the need of clear thinkers, who are able to detach themselves from the tumult and gain of the day and to arrive at the indispensable actions. The world has many such thinkers, but because they are detached they are likely to be disregarded. Always must we be on guard against the machinery of government. This machinery becomes so perfect and smooth-working as to demand little energy. It runs the men, and many little monarchies are set up in a democracy. Sometimes for years no personality stands out as master of the ma...« less