The Theory of Democracy

THE THOMIST A SPECULATIVE QUARTERLY REVIEW OF THEOLOGY AND PHILOSOPHY EmToRs: THE DoMINICAN FATHERS oF THE PROVINCE oF ST. JosEPH Publishers: Sheed & Ward, Inc., New York City VoL. Ill JULY, 1941 No.3 THE THEORY OF DEMOCRACY PREFA'l:ORY NoTE W E propose to make a philosophical analysi!'l of democracy . We cannot ignore the fact that this analysis is coincident with a world-wide war which has Cvernment is not only a certain grade of political goodness already accomplished , but both a stage in the progressive realization of the ideal common good, and accordingly a less or more efficient means toward the ultimate end, the happiness of every person who is a member of the human community. e. The three factors (in terms of which the specific forms of good government are differentially constituted) are three separable and cumulative elements of political justice. (I) The political community is an organized multitude of men living together in the unity of peace. THE THEORY OF DE]dOCRACY 417 (2) The state, or political community, is not the only organized multitude of men living together in the unity of peace. (a) Communities can be distinguished according to their causes, final and efficient, and thus we distinguish between the Church, as a supernatural community, and all other societies as natural. (b) Among natural communities, there are two further principles of distinction: first, according as the end of association is the human good simpliciter, or a human good secundum quid, and thus, the family, the village, and the state, are distinguished from all economic or technical corporations; second, according as the association for the sake of the human good simpliciter is more or less self-sufficient and more or less adequate to the realization of the end, and thus the state is distinguished from family and village as perfect from imperfect communities. (3) Justice is the efficient principle of order in any community of men, and as such justice is a source of that unity of peace without which no community exists. (4) (a) The peaceful organization of any multitude of men requires government, and the distinction of rulers and ruled. (b) The types of government are distinguished according to the natures of the persons associated and the conditions of their association: thus, domestic and tribal, or village, governments are distinguished from political government, i. e., the type of government appropriate to states, or political communities, in which the multitude includes men of unrelated families. (c) Political justice is the principle of order in political communities, and as such is constitutive of government as the organization of its members according to relations of ruler a,nd ruled. (d) As a principle of order, political justice is both final and efficient, since the end by and for which a form of government exists is always a just order. Government is good in proportion as it is just, and one form of political government is better than another in proportion as it is more just. Since there are separable 418 M. J. ADLER AND WALTER FARRELL and cumulative elements of political justice, one government is better than another by virtue of possessing an element of justice not possessed by its inferior. f. The three elements of political justice can be distinguished in the following manner. (1) The first is discovered by answering the question, How is de facto political power exercised by those who possess it, regardless of how they have come to possess it? The first principle of justice is that political power be exercised for the sake of preserving the existing good of the community. This principle applies to any member of the community who acts politically, but primarily, of course, to those who exercise ruling power, and only secondarily, of course, to those who exercise whatever power they possess as men who are being ruled. By this criterion, injustice consists, on the part of the rulers, in the exercise of power for their own sake; and similarly, on the part of the ruled, injustice consists in disobedience to just rule, in order to satisfy private interests at the expense of the common good. (9l) The second is discovered by answering the question, How...