out of which they arose. They have been mere essays in democracy; nowhere has it been consistently applied. Only the really new States, the States of the future, will be founded, inwardly and outwardly, on liberty, equality and fraternity. Our position is not solely that our State must be democratic; it cannot be undemocratic. In comparing it with America I have said that we have no dynasty, no national aristocracy, no old militarist tradition in the army, and no Church politically recognized in the way the older States recognized it, particularly the absolutist, Caesarist, theocratic States. Apart from the positive worth of a republic and of democracy in themselves, these considerations influenced my decision upon the form of our State, though I knew that the education we had received for centuries and the example of absolutist, purely dynastic Austria had left their marks upon us. In the past our democratic aims were negative, a negation of Austrian absolutism. Now they must be positive. What we took as our ideal must become reality—and it will not be easy.
Democracy, the sovereignty of the people, differs not only in degree but in its whole quality from aristocracy, especially from monarchical aristocracy. The republican democratic State is founded not upon Divine Right, nor upon the Church, but upon the people, upon humanity. It is a government of all for all, not of rulers and ruled but of administration, self-government and the coordination of all State-creative forces. The democratic ideal would be direct government and administration by the people; but, given the growing dimensions of nations and States, democracy can only be indirect, exerting its functions through Parliament, by means of representatives elected under universal suffrage. Yet this Parliament, and the Government responsible to it, ought not to be rulers after the old fashion. They must ever bear in mind that their authority is derived by delegation from the electors.
Democratic constitutions provide for referenda which allow the democracy at large to come quantitatively into play from time to time, at least as regards legislation. And democracy necessarily protects individuals, for freedom is its aim and essence, and it was begotten of modern individualism. Hence the election and selection of its representatives is a means of assessing their value; for democracy takes account of competence and capacity, albeit with the difference that the authority it confers does not connote political or class privilege but signifies political and administrative fitness and expert quality. Its task is therefore to organize the authority of its
