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

THEORY OF DEMOCRACY 775
illustration of the obligation which is laid upon the State
an obligation which, however distasteful, the State finds
that it cannot avoid shouldering of intervening to check
the blind effects of purely economic actions on die part of
individuals. The necessity for the Factory Acts, Trade
Board Acts, Shop Hours Acts, and similar legislation, ex-
posed the shortcomings of that particular form of political
individualism which dominated political thought during
the nineteenth century, and which is most favourable to
unrestrained economic action. The Egoistic Hedonism
popularized by the utilitarians, coupled with the theories
of the Manchester economists, issued, as I have already
shown, 1 in the doctrine that each invididual could be
trusted to look after his own interests far better than anyone
else, and that, in consequence, it was not the business
of the State to interfere in the relations between individuals.
This doctrine rests upon two assumptions. It assumes
( i ) that each individual has an equal opportunity and equal
power of choice, and (a) that each individual is equally
far-sighted and has equal power of giving effect to his
choice. Taken together these assumptions entail that the
proposition, each individual can be trusted to look after
his own interests, is true and equally true of each
individual.
In fact neither assumption is correct. Owing to the
differences between their economic circumstances people
have different ranges of choice, and in consequence
different opportunities of choosing. Moreover, people sec
the results of their actions in very different degrees; no
man is able to see all the results of any particular action,
but some men can see further than others.
Because of the inferiority of their powers of choice and
foresight, the many were in the nineteenth century exploited
by the few in the interests, not of the many or of the community
at large,, but of the few, exploited so unashamedly
that the State was compelled to step in and check the
"blind" results of economic action by political action.
* See Chapter IX, pp. 348, 349*