" [Footnote:
_Op. cit_., p. 426.]
4
The democratic ideal, as Jefferson moulded it, consisting of an ideal
environment and a selected class, did not conflict with the political
science of his time. It did conflict with the realities. And when the
ideal was stated in absolute terms, partly through exuberance and
partly for campaign purposes, it was soon forgotten that the theory
was originally devised for very special conditions. It became the
political gospel, and supplied the stereotypes through which Americans
of all parties have looked at politics.
That gospel was fixed by the necessity that in Jefferson's time no one
could have conceived public opinions that were not spontaneous and
subjective. The democratic tradition is therefore always trying to see
a world where people are exclusively concerned with affairs of which
the causes and effects all operate within the region they inhabit.
Never has democratic theory been able to conceive itself in the
context of a wide and unpredictable environment. The mirror is
concave. And although democrats recognize that they are in contact
with external affairs, they see quite surely that every contact
outside that self-contained group is a threat to democracy as
originally conceived. That is a wise fear. If democracy is to be
spontaneous, the interests of democracy must remain simple,
intelligible, and easily managed.
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