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472 The Ideal of Human Unitytendencies has been complete. In two directions it may lead toa new form of modified oligarchy with a democratic basis. Thegovernment of a modern society is now growing an exceedinglycomplicated business in each part of which a special knowledge,special competence, special faculties are required and every newstep towards State socialism must increase this tendency. Theneed of this sort of special training or faculty in the councillorand administrator combined with the democratic tendencies ofthe age might well lead to some modern form of the old Chineseprinciple of government, a democratic organisation of life below,above the rule of a sort of intellectual bureaucracy, an officialaristocracy of special knowledge and capacity recruited from thegeneral body without distinction of classes. Equal opportunitywould be indispensable but this governing élite would still forma class by itself in the constitution of the society. On the otherhand, if the industrialism of the modern nations changes, assome think it will, and develops into a sort of guild socialism,a guild aristocracy of Labour might well become the governingbody in the society. 6 If any of these things were done, any movementtowards a World-State would then take the same directionand evolve a governing body of the same model.But in these two possibilities we leave out of considerationthe great factor of nationalism and the conflicting interests andtendencies it creates. To overcome these conflicting interests, ithas been supposed, the best way is to evolve a sort of worldParliament in which, it is to be presumed, the freely formed andfreely expressed opinion of the majority would prevail. Parliamentarism,the invention of the English political genius, is anecessary stage in the evolution of democracy, for without it thegeneralised faculty of considering and managing with the leastpossible friction large problems of politics, administration, economics,legislation concerning considerable aggregates of mencannot easily be developed. It has also been the one successful6 Something of the kind was attempted in Soviet Russia for a time. The existingconditions were not favourable and a definite form of government not revolutionary andprovisional is not anywhere in sight. In Fascist Italy a cooperative State was announcedbut this too took no effectual or perfect shape.