THE SECOND ELEMENT IN DEMOCRACY: CONTROL BY THE PEOPLE
We shall study the organization and methods of lawmaking in later chapters. At present we are merely noting WHY we have laws, and the fact that they are supposed to be made, directly or indirectly, by the people themselves. And right here we see the second thing necessary to make a DEMOCRACY. On page 9 we saw that in a democracy all people have certain equal and "unalienable" rights, and that that community is most democratic that affords its members most nearly equal opportunity to enjoy these rights. Now we see further that in a democracy the people make their own laws. Moreover, the laws of a democracy control, not only the conduct of the people, but also the government itself. The government of a democracy may do only those things, and use only those methods, for which the people give the authority. It is only when government exercises power without control by the people that it becomes autocratic.
TWO HISTORIC DOCUMENTS
The purpose of our government is clearly stated in two historic documents. One of these is the Declaration of Independence, which has already been quoted in Chapter I. The same quotation is given here with an additional sentence in italics:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That, TO SECURE THESE RIGHTS, GOVERNMENTS ARE INSTITUTED AMONG MEN, DERIVING THEIR JUST POWERS FROM THE CONSENT OF THE GOVERNED…
The second great document is the Constitution of the United
States, the preamble to which reads:
We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
DEMOCRACY A GOAL STILL TO BE REACHED
It is not to be supposed that our government and our laws are perfect. They cannot be perfect as long as they are made and operated by imperfect people. It is possible, for example, that the boys of the city had a just complaint against the government for not permitting them to play ball in vacant lots, UNLESS THE COMMUNITY AT THE SAME TIME PROVIDED THEM WITH ANOTHER SUITABLE PLACE FOR THE GAME—for every community should protect the right of its boys and girls to play. We are far from having attained complete democracy. It is a goal toward which men are struggling, and have been struggling for centuries—since long before our Revolutionary War, and in other countries as well as in our own. The great world war which began in 1914, and which the United States entered in 1917, was a war to establish more firmly in the world the principles of democratic government. Whether these principles shall be carried out in practice, and whether our governments—local, state, and national—shall fulfill the purposes so clearly stated in the preamble to the Constitution, depends upon the extent to which each citizen understands these purposes, and cooperates with his fellow-citizens and with his governments in support of them.