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

THEORY OF DEMOCRACY 773
would concur that political activity is not correctly re-
garded as merely a by-product ofeconomic activity; and to
maintain, further, that even ifwe assume an indefinite growth
of voluntary associations, there will nevertheless remain
for the State a set of functions which only some form of
political organization can discharge. The need for the
performance ofthese necessary functions constitutes the basis
of that minimum conception of the State to which, I have
suggested, most democrats would be prepared to subscribe.
Characteristics of Economic Action. The nature of
these functions may, I think, most clearly be seen, if we
consider for a moment the " blind' 9
nature of economic
actions. The epithet is used to indicate two rather different
characteristics; first, that economic action as I have
already pointed out, 1 is concerned with individual ends,
and not with the ends of society as a whole; secondly, that
the results of economic action, though they affect society
as a whole, are not willed either by society or by any
individual. This apparent paradox arises as follows.
Assuming that free will is a fact, we may say tjhat deliberation
and choice in economic matters are expressions of the
individual's free initiative. The individual does not, however,
choose the results of the actions he has willed. Now
these results affect society as a whole. Hence, although the
general conditions of society at any moment are the result
of the ways in which numbers of individuals have willed
and chosen, they are themselves not chosen by individuals
or by society. Instances will make the point clearer.
As a result of the shortage of foodstuffs that occurred
during the war, the prices of commodities rose. People
complained and went out of their way to find shops
where they could purchase cheaply. They wanted, we will
suppose, cheap sugar, and hearing a rumour that at a
certain shop frugar was being sold at less than the prevailing
rate, repaired thither en masse to buy. As a result, the
sugar either went up in price or was sold out; this result,
* See Chapter XVIII, pp. 743. 744-