fact its main purpose is not service at all but exploitation.(3)
He proceeds on:
Of all the varieties of government it is probably democracy that has
fared worse at the hands of these brethren. Knowing very well, as a
cardinal article of their art, how little people in general are moved by
rational ideas and how much by mere hullabaloo, they make common
cause with every pressure group that comes along, and are thus
maintained in office by an endless series of public enemies.(4)
Arnold J. Toynbee writes (in his recent book, The Present Day
Experiment in Western Civilisation, 1962):
Democratic parliamentary government is a less efficient and,
therefore, a more wasteful regime than oligarchic parliamentary
government, and even a parliamentary oligarchy is inefficient and
extravagant by comparison with a well-managed authoritarian
regime (p. 35).
VII. UNO's QuestionnaireIn 1947, UNESCO, the cultural organ of the U.N., set up a
research committee to study and report on the working of the
democratic system in different countries. The Committee invited
some great scholars to contribute articles to the proposed volume
on democracy. All shades of opinion were represented in the
volume which was published under the title Democracy in a World of
Tensions. "What is the meaning of democracy?" was the first
question that they were asked. Most of the scholars admitted that
the word was vague and its precise sense had not been determined.
A few went so far as to call it "one of the most ambiguous words in
current usage" (p.460).
The next question asked was, "Is the majority vote always
correct, and a protest against it is a protest against democracy"? The
answer was:
It does not, however, imply that the judgment of the majority is
inerrant; and it, therefore, allows freedom to minorities to agitate and
vote for the reversal of previous majority decisions (p. 504).
While pointing out its defects we must be fair and recognise the
merits of the democratic system at the same time. The democratic
form of government would pass muster in any comparison with
Political System 216