Introduction
The United Kingdom is not a simple democracy; she is a democratic and parliamentary constitutional monarchy. Just as well, thought Irish historian and Unionist MP William Lecky. The kind of democracy they had on the Continent pandered to grievance groups, extremists and slick campaign strategists, and he feared it would soon become a screen for dictatorship.
I HAVE pointed out the tendency of modern democratic parliaments to break up more and more into small groups with the inevitable consequence of enfeebling the executive; destroying or dislocating the party system; giving a disproportionate power to extreme, self-seeking and skilfully organised minorities; turning important branches of legislation into something little better than a competition of class bribery, and thus lowering the tone of public life and the character and influence of public men.*
I have argued that parliaments of this type are much less truly representative of the best elements of the nation than parliaments established on a less democratic basis;* that they are peculiarly apt to lose the power of directing and guiding public opinion, and that except in countries where a long experience of free government has produced an unusually high standard of political intelligence* they are very unfit to exercise uncontrolled and commanding power, or to deal efficiently with the more difficult problems of politics.
Less than three years have passed since these views were put forward, yet in that short time how many illustrations of them have occurred!
* John Adams, the second President of the USA, warned of this danger back in 1798, saying that if Americans behaved like Europeans then the light and liberal Constitution he had written for them would be wholly inadequate for governing the country. See A Moral and Religious People.
* For Lecky, an ‘extreme democracy’ was one in which a simple majority wielded unbridled power over the rest in the name of the common good — what Oscar Wilde had recently called “the bludgeoning of the people by the people for the people,” and what Edmund Burke (watching the bloodthirsty French Revolution unfold) had described as “the most shameless thing in the world.” The United Kingdom has never adopted ‘extreme democracy;’ it is a democratic constitutional monarchy, designed to avoid the extremes of Continental politics: see William Pitt on The Temperate Zone. Lecky’s great fear was that one day a European parliament would contrive to vote in a dictatorship. “A despotism resting on a plebiscite” he observed “is quite as natural a form of democracy as a republic, and some of the strongest democratic tendencies are distinctly adverse to liberty.” He gave the example of the Roman Empire; a later generation might have pointed to the Enabling Act passed in the German legislature in 1933, in which democracy and Parliament effectively annihilated each other. See also John Buchan on Popular Misconceptions.
* In 1928 the Westminster Parliament brought in universal suffrage after realising (somewhat late in the day) that ‘the best elements of the nation with an unusually high standard of political intelligence’ are not restricted to male homeowners with a University education. See The Reform Acts.
Précis
Nineteenth-century historian William Lecky recalled in ‘Democracy and Liberty’ that he had expressed fears for democratic states on the European Continent, as the kind of government they had established lent itself to exploitation by extreme groups and slick lobbyists. Within just a few years, he felt his fear that liberty might be extinguished by democracy was well-justified. (57 / 60 words)
Nineteenth-century historian William Lecky recalled in ‘Democracy and Liberty’ that he had expressed fears for democratic states on the European Continent, as the kind of government they had established lent itself to exploitation by extreme groups and slick lobbyists. Within just a few years, he felt his fear that liberty might be extinguished by democracy was well-justified.
Variations: 1.increase the length of this precis to exactly 60 words. 2.reduce the length of this precis to exactly 50 words. 3.introduce one of the following words into the precis: although, besides, despite, if, may, ought, whether, who.
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