Graham R (Ed.) - Anarchism - A Documentary History of Libertarian Ideas Volume One - From Anarchy to Anarchism (300 CE to 1939)

Epilogue And Prologue To Volume 2 / 503
citizen and his representative in Parliament was direct and human; there was a time
when the relationship between a member of Parliament and the government was direct
and human; but all that has passed. We have been the victims of a process of dehumanization
in our political life. Parties have become obedient regiments of
mercenaries; delegates have been replaced by committees; the paid official, the omnipresent
bureaucrat, stands between the citizen and his Parliament. Most departments
of national life are controlled by vast and efficient bureaucratic machines
which would continue to function to a large extent independently-that is to say, irrespective
of political control.
Universal political franchise has been a failure-that we have to confess. Only a
minority of the people is politically conscious, and the remainder only exist to have
their ignorance and apathy exploited by an unscrupulous Press. But do not let us confuse
universal franchise, which is a system of election, with democracy, which is a
principle of social organization. Universal franchise is no more essential to democracy
than divine right is to monarchy. It is a myth: a quite illusory delegation of
power. Justice, equality, and freedom-these are the true principles of democracy,
and it is possible-it has been amply proved by events in Italy and Germany-that
the universal franchise can in no sense guarantee these principles, and may, indeed,
impose a fiction of consent where in effect no liberty of choice exists.
If you go into a village and propose to introduce electric power; if YOll go into a city
street and propose to widen it; if you raise the price of bread or curtail the hours of drinking
licences-then you touch the immediate interests of the citizen. Put these questions
to the voter and without any coaxing or canvassing he will run to the poll.
In short, real politics are local politics. If we can make politics local, we can
make them real. For this reason the universal vote should be restricted to the local
unit of government, and this local government should control all the immediate interests
ofthe citizen. Such interests as are not controlled by the local council should
be controlled by his local branch of the syndicate or soviet to which he belongs. His
remoter interests-questions of co-operation, intercommunication, and fo reign affa
irs-should be settled by councils of delegates elected by the local councils and the
syndicates. Only in that way shall we ever get a democracy of vital articulation and efficient
fo rce.
It is important, however, to make one qualification without which any democratic
system will fail. A delegate should always be an ad hoc delegate. Once a delegate
separates himself from his natural productive function, once he becomes a
professional delegate, then all the old trouble sets in again. The bureaucratic para-