GUIDE TO THE PHILOSOPHY 1938 - 1947.pdf - Rare Books at ...

THE IDEALIST THEORY OF THE STATE 579
being widely urged in the early and middle nineteenth
century, the period when representative democracy was
apparently winning its greatest triumphs. That the
theory of representative government is not the simple and
straightforward affair which at first glance it appears to
be, the discussion of Mill's views in the previous chapter*
has, I hope, shown. The question upon which the criticism
in its modern form turns is, "How can the interests of a
large modern community be adequately represented by
a single individual or group of individuals " ? Let us simplify
the issue and postulate a community of five persons, A,
B, C, D and X, in which X is elected by A, B, C, and D as
their representative. Various possibilities arise: X may
represent D on no issue whatsoever, D being thus in a
permanent minority on all issues. He may represent C
on one issue, B on two, and A on all. Only A, therefore, is
truly represented by X. Since a representative could
represent everybody in respect of every issue, only if everybody
took the same view of every issue, and since such
unanimity is almost always unrealized in practice, the most
that he can hope to do is to represent most people on some
issues, and some people on most issues. Since he cannot
"
represent all, the question then arises, Whom or what ought
he to represent?" To this question, it will be remembered,
there is a number of answers. Rousseau, denying that any-
body could be said strictly to represent anybody else,
rejected the whole theory of representative government.
Locke held that it was the majority which ought to be represented.
Locke's view, however, presupposes that there is a
more or less stable majority which thinks alike on the
majority of the issues that arise for decision. But in practice
it is found that A agrees with B and C on issue P, and
with D on issue Q,, while on issue R, B, G and D think
alike, but think differently from A. Hence on. one issue
A, B and C constitute a majority, on another B, C and D,
while on a third the members of the community may be
equally divided. Thus the conception of a representative
1 See Chapter XIV, pp. 528-535.