PUBLIC OPINION by WALTER LIPPMANN TO FAYE LIPPMANN ...

present a choice to a large group.
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The abuses of the steering committee have led to various proposals
such as the initiative, referendum and direct primary. But these
merely postponed or obscured the need for a machine by complicating
the elections, or as H. G. Wells once said with scrupulous accuracy,
the selections. For no amount of balloting can obviate the need of
creating an issue, be it a measure or a candidate, on which the voters
can say Yes, or No. There is, in fact, no such thing as "direct
legislation." For what happens where it is supposed to exist? The
citizen goes to the polls, receives a ballot on which a number of
measures are printed, almost always in abbreviated form, and, if he
says anything at all, he says Yes or No. The most brilliant amendment
in the world may occur to him. He votes Yes or No on that bill and no
other. You have to commit violence against the English language to
call that legislation. I do not argue, of course, that there are no
benefits, whatever you call the process. I think that for certain
kinds of issues there are distinct benefits. But the necessary
simplicity of any mass decision is a very important fact in view of
the inevitable complexity of the world in which those decisions
operate. The most complicated form of voting that anyone proposes is,
I suppose, the preferential ballot. Among a number of candidates
presented the voter under that system, instead of saying yes to one
candidate and no to all the others, states the order of his choice.
But even here, immensely more flexible though it is, the action of the
mass depends upon the quality of the choices presented. [Footnote:
_Cf._ H. J. Laski, _Foundations of Sovereignty,_ p. 224. "...
proportional representation... by leading, as it seems to lead, to the
group system... may deprive the electors of their choice of leaders."
The group system undoubtedly tends, as Mr. Laski says, to make the
selection of the executive more indirect, but there is no doubt also
that it tends to produce legislative assemblies in which currents of
opinion are more fully represented. Whether that is good or bad
cannot be determined a priori. But one can say that successful
cooperation and responsibility in a more accurately representative
assembly require a higher organization of political intelligence and
political habit, than in a rigid two-party house. It is a more complex
political form and may therefore work less well.] And those choices
are presented by the energetic coteries who hustle about with
petitions and round up the delegates. The Many can elect after the Few
have nominated.