I agree that representative government is
the ideal, but how is it to operate in the legislature and still more in
administration? Are government departments to be controlled by
Parliament or by the representatives of the particular class to promote
whose interests special departments were created. I hold that the
continuous efficiency of State departments can only be maintained when
they are controlled in respect of policy, not by the casual politician
whom the fluctuations of popular emotion places at their head, but by
the class or industry the State institution was created to serve. A
department of State can conceivably be preserved from stagnation by a
minister of strong will, who has a more profound knowledge of the
problems connected with his department than even his permanent
officials. He might vitalize them from above. But does the party system
yield us such Ministers? In practice is not high position the reward of
service to party? Is special knowledge demanded of the controller of a
Board of Trade or a Board of Agriculture? Do we not all know that the
vast majority of Ministers are controlled by the permanent officials of
their department.
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