THE DEMOCRAT'S FAITH
By WILLIAM BROCK*
IN an age when it may be necessary to defend democracy, it is not less necessary to define it. This definition must take the form of separating externals from essentials, and it must seek to show where democracy can part com- pany with its non-essential machinery and the abuses which cluster around that machinery. A Fascist would probably say that the whole conception of democracy is nothing but an external expression of a general culture, of which his own system is the truer expression. Democrats, if they are to resist such an argument, must be confident that democracy in its fundamentals does express some constant and necessary factor in the " good life." Much of the triteness with which the pronouncements of democratic leaders seem to abound arises from their attempts to compress democratic truths into a short space, while blandly ignoring the manifest sores upon the demo- cratic body. Democrats must be ready to meet their critics, freely confessing their faults, with some movement of reform already in train, and with a sure conviction that beneath all the excrescences there is a true democracy which can be separated from its external abuses. A new radical move- ment is a crying need for England today ; without it England seems likely to join Imperial Rome, which decayed because it lost faith and lost self-confidence.
Piecemeal criticism of democracy must be all too easy a game for a Fascist. In recent weeks he must have watched gleefully as one after another of the hoary abuses of demo- cracy have been brought into public light: the iron hand of the Central Office crushing all show of spontaneous feel- ing among the electors; the purchase (it amounts to nothing less, and it is not confined to the Conservative Party) of * Mr. Brock was last week awarded the Thirlwall Prize, "offered for dissertations involving original historical research," at Cambridge. Parliamentary seats ; domination of Parliament by big busi- ness and trade unions; failure to achieve a highest common factor representing a truly national policy ; the list stretches out to the crack of doom.
No democrat can hear such criticisms without a blush of shame; the only possible defence is for him to admit the fault and to point out that such things are not necessary concomitants of democracy. Should he take the other line —that such things are not pleasant but inevitable, and must be suffered in order to preserve the whole—he lays himself open to the reply that a system in which such things are accepted, a system in which such things grow inevitably from the roots, had better be discarded altogether, for it must be rotten at the roots. Such an argument is being followed in England to-day, and the feeling spreads far beyond the narrow and noisy confines of the " Blackshirt." One test of the anti-democratic feeling in England today is the spread of anti-semitism. Such a movement may grow unseen to formidable proportions before a " Leader " pro- vides a channel for its outlet ; it is for democrats to take the initiative and to exorcise this feeling before such a disaster comes upon England. It will not be from Fascist sympathisers alone that the radical democrat must expect criticism ; there will be a vast body of conservative opinion which will defend existing practices because they work well enough, and because, in attacking, it may be necessary to question the value of certain hallowed parts of the machinery of representative government. The classic conception of a two or three- party system, for instance, is already showing bad signs of wear. It will be for democrats to decide whether it is right to bolster up the party system, which, with its assumption that every child is born either a Tory or a Socialist, forces a somewhat unreal distinction upon the electors ; or whether the recent appearance of " Independent" candidates at by- elections is a sign of political health, and should accord- ingly be fostered.
Democracy itself is not more than a means to an end, though it is the best and possibly the only means; how cautious then should democrats be of entering a defence for institutions which are only a means to democracy, and possibly not the best means. Democracy is the means by which a man may live the fullest possible life, playing the maximum part in ordering his own life, receiving the maximum benefit from the natural ties of society, and per- forming the maximum of service for society. These are the three fundamentals, but it is impossible to find a logical formula governing the relationship of the three. It would be unjust to make demands upon the individual which would seriously impair his right of determining his own life, it is equally unjust for the individual to expect benefits from society without accepting some responsibilities and perform- ing some duties. The balance of forces in a democratic society must be found by experience and judged by public opinion, not by academic theory.
There is another kind of criticism which the reforming democrat must face. In a time of national danger it will be urged that nothing should detract from the outward strength of the Government, that current abuses do form a convenient method of managing a democratic State, and that if reform is necessary it should be in the interests of efficiency and at the expense of liberty. Nothing is more plausible than this argument, nothing is more dangerous. The demo- crat's case is not concerned merely with social theory, it is also a question of patriotism and loyalty to English traditions. The democratic way of life is indigenous in English culture; if England must become Fascist in order to resist Fascism, England has already lost half the battle.
England has grown out of the stage in which men fight for territorial gains and national glory alone. If Englishmen fight it must be for national glory expressed through a passionate devotion to the English way of life. It is hardly necessary to add that democrats believe their way of life to be drawn from the precepts of the Christian religion ; of all the ends to which democracy is a means the most important is to enable every man to render unto G od the things which are God's, and this is an end which is specifically denied by totalitarian creeds.
When the democratic reformer is accused of causing un- patriotic embarrassment to a Government which may have to face, at any moment, the threat of foreign war, he must reply that he is attempting to create something for which it will be worth fighting. It is by such a renewal of national faith and national confidence, far more than by any " efficiency " drives, that a war will be won. In seeking to purify democracy, the reformer must always remember that he is laying bare the essentials of a system which is the child of human idealism and of human good sense, a system which, if it is allowed to grow undeformed, will endure when Fascism, National Socialism, and Marxism are but names in text-books.
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