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

5&0
POLITICS
entrusted with a general mandate to represent his con-
stituents on all issues is unrealizable in fact, and the nearest
approach to true representation that can be made will
be the appointment of delegates with mandates to represent,
on certain given issues, all or most of the persons who
appoint them, but with no authority to speak for them
on other issues. This was, in fact, the expedient suggested
by Burke, who held that Parliament had no need to
be representative of the people whom it was required
to govern, and is for certain purposes adopted in Soviet
Russia. 1 Mill, as we have seen, 9
is highly critical of
representative government To a representation system
based upon numbers, Mill was strongly opposed. The
thought of a government which would reflect and express
"the collective mediocrity" of the masses was abhorrent to
him. He hoped, however, that, as the community advanced
in intelligence, the government could afford to be more
representative, and pointed out that, the more worth while
the community, the more interests would a single representative
be able to promote; for a valuable community is one
in which the number of common interests is large, the
common interests in question being those which are bound
up with the increase of cultural well-being. Whatever
view we take, representative government involves, it is
dear, certain problems, and the nature of some of the
solutions which theorists have propounded for these
problems brings us back to the sources of idealist theory.
THAT THE INTEREST WHICH OUGHT TO BE
REPRESENTED is THE STATE'S INTEREST. It
may plausibly be argued that the only interests in the
community which ought to be represented are the interests
which everybody has in common. If a particular interest
opposes the interests which everybody has in common,
then, it may well be said, this interest is inimical to
the interests of the whole, and the mere fact that it
'See Chtpter XVIII, pp. 74&-73O.
Sec Chapter XIV, pp. 528-531.