They are too easily dominated by the holders of
economic power, are, in fact, always dominated by aristocracies with
land or by the aristocracies of wealth. It is the hand at the helm
guides the ship. The larger the State is the more easily do the holders
of economic power gain political power. The theory of representative
government held good in practice, I think, so long as parliaments were
engaged in formulating general rights, the right, for example, of the
individual to think or profess any religion he pleased; his right not
to be deprived of liberty or life without open trial by his fellow-
citizens. So long as legislatures were affirming or maintaining these
rights, which rich and poor equally desired, they were justified. But
when legislatures began to intervene in economic matters, in the
struggles between rich and poor, between capital and labor, it became at
once apparent the holders of economic power had also political power;
and that the institution which operated fairly where universal rights
were considered did not operate fairly when there was a conflict between
particular interests.
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