More consultation than that is generally possible and
desirable. But the essential fact remains that a small number of heads
present a choice to a large group.
6
The abuses of the steering committee have led to various proposals
such as the initiative, referendum and direct primary. But these
merely postponed or obscured the need for a machine by complicating
the elections, or as H. G. Wells once said with scrupulous accuracy,
the selections. For no amount of balloting can obviate the need of
creating an issue, be it a measure or a candidate, on which the voters
can say Yes, or No. There is, in fact, no such thing as "direct
legislation." For what happens where it is supposed to exist? The
citizen goes to the polls, receives a ballot on which a number of
measures are printed, almost always in abbreviated form, and, if he
says anything at all, he says Yes or No. The most brilliant amendment
in the world may occur to him. He votes Yes or No on that bill and no
other. You have to commit violence against the English language to
call that legislation. I do not argue, of course, that there are no
benefits, whatever you call the process. I think that for certain
kinds of issues there are distinct benefits. But the necessary
simplicity of any mass decision is a very important fact in view of
the inevitable complexity of the world in which those decisions
operate. The most complicated form of voting that anyone proposes is,
I suppose, the preferential ballot.
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