Unpopular government in the United States

SEC. 5. The Power of Government Passes into the Hands of Those Who Are Able to Direct the Majority of the Politically Ignorant How to Vote. They Constitute an Extra-legal but No...

The plan for state and municipal governments generally accepted in the United States in the middle period of the nineteenth century gave great satisfaction in the provincial and...

Unpopular government is, and indeed always has been, a government of the few, by the few, and for the few, at the expense and against the wish of the many.

In brief outline this is what has occurred: As the population of the country has grown and communities and states have passed more and more beyond the frontier stage of developm...

If extra-legal unpopular government by politocrats rests upon a condition of political ignorance on the part of the electorate, then it will be said that the obvious cure is to...

The evolution of the modern politocracy began with the ward boss in districts of our larger cities where voting was ignorant because the population was largely foreign, illitera...

A few astute friends of the electorate have perceived that the power of the extra-legal politocracy rested fundamentally upon the political ignorance of the voter, especially th...

In a rough way it has long been perceived that the party circle and party column on ballots are a vital part of the machinery necessary to direct the politically ignorant voter...

Upon the first appearance of the professional adviser and director to the politically ignorant voter he became a power in the presentation of candidates for election. It was ind...

Nicholas Longworth, when congratulated on his election to Congress, is reported to have said: “Election! I wasn’t elected; I was appointed.”[7] This contains a very real truth....

The movement for the recall began just as soon as it was generally perceived that our system of frequent elections to fill a large number of offices did not prevent the extra-le...

Independent movements have been launched in different localities from time to time. These have been prompted by the too open and too violently selfish use of power by the extra-...

Extra-legal unpopular government rests fundamentally upon the fact that a few are able to cast the ballots of the voters for them. This is accomplished through the process of ad...

It took a flood and a hurricane which overwhelmed a prosperous city to reverse the popular convictions which lie at the basis of government in the United States. In 1900 Galvest...

If the city be a larger one, with 100,000 male voters and upward, and a population of 700,000 to 1,000,000 and upward, its government by a small commission, each member of which...

Our first care must be to eliminate the division of power which comes from having two legislative chambers, each equally representing the electorate. The legislative power as it...

Our state legislatures are now for the most part composed of members elected from fairly wieldy districts. Governmental changes then which look toward the application of the pri...

The institution of private property is still with us and likely to remain for some time. The acquisition and holding of private property is still the main object of our existenc...

Justice is not administered by an executive head planning how a large number of employees shall do clerical work or tend machines. Its ultimate source is in the operation of the...

The federal government is already organized upon a plan of centralized power. The ballot which it presents to the voter is always short. The voter casts his ballot for a preside...

The conflict between extra-legal government and the popular demand for a true democracy is as irresistible as was the conflict between the South and the North over the instituti...