25. Advantages and disadvantages of the city manager plan. (See the Debaters' Handbook Series.)
CHAPTER XXXVII
THE EXTENSION OF POPULAR CONTROL
463. BASIS OF POPULAR CONTROL.—The fact that our government is a representative democracy entitles the voters to choose, direct, and control the public officials who act for the people at large. We have discussed a few of the methods whereby the nomination and election machinery might be improved; we must now go a step further and examine the means by which officeholders may be controlled.
Supposedly, officials are chosen because the people believe them able and willing to discharge public duties with honesty and efficiency. But after officials have taken office it may develop that they have secured their positions by unfair means, or that they are dishonest, or that they are inefficient or otherwise unsatisfactory. Wherever it develops that officeholders no longer meet with the approval of the people, truly representative government is impossible unless some method of effective popular control is found.
A. INDIRECT METHODS OF CONTROL
464. REFUSAL TO RE╦LECT.—If the voters are dissatisfied with the conduct of their representatives, they may express their disapproval by refusing to reŰlect those representatives. This effects a measure of control, even though it is negative and not immediate.
465. REMOVAL BY THE APPOINTIVE AUTHORITY.—If satisfaction is not rendered by subordinate administrative officials who have secured office through appointment, such officials may be removed from office by the authority appointing them. The power of the President, Governor, or mayor to appoint generally carries with it the power to remove from office. Such removal may be on the initiative of the appointing authority, or it may be in response to a popular demand. From the standpoint of the voters at large, however, this method of removal is indirect and often ineffective.
466. IMPEACHMENT.—Unsatisfactory officials are sometimes removed by the impeachment process. In the various states either a part or the whole of the legislature may sit as a court of impeachment for the trial of certain important officials accused of serious crime. In the National government the House of Representatives may initiate impeachment proceedings against the President, Vice-President, and all other civil officers of the United States. In such cases the Senate acts as a court of trial.
Yet as a method of popular control impeachment is unsatisfactory. It is indirect, since a part or the whole of the legislature acts for the people. It is slow and cumbersome. It does not extend over the entire list of public officials, nor over the entire range of offenses.