CHAPTER VI
POPULAR CONTROL OF GOVERNMENT
The purpose of this chapter is to explain how the people, both directly and indirectly, control all branches of government in the United States.
Public Opinion and Representative Government
The ultimate sovereignty of the people.
How the People Rule.—In free governments the will of the people prevails in the decision of all important matters. This does not mean, of course, that the people decide every question directly, but merely that when a substantial majority of them have reached a decision upon any point their will prevails through one channel or another. The wishes of the American people have at times been thwarted by their government; but in the long run, when the people have made up their minds, their will has brushed aside every obstacle and has become the supreme law of the land. This popular control of American government is exerted in four ways, namely, by the pressure of public opinion upon all officials, by the periodic election of representatives, by direct law-making through the initiative and referendum, and by the action of the people in amending their state constitutions.
The pressure of public opinion is continuous, and it is exerted in various ways. The government cannot proceed very far in defiance of it. The election of representatives, on the other hand, takes place at stated intervals, and in the period between elections the people do not have direct control over those whom they elect. But where provision for the initiative and referendum exists, the people may frame and enact laws without the intervention of their representatives and thus may exercise direct control. Finally, the ultimate agency of popular sovereignty is the power of the people to amend their constitutions. So far as the state constitutions are concerned they accept or reject proposed changes by their own votes; in the case of the national constitution they act through their representatives in Congress and in the state legislatures. By these four methods of control we maintain what is known as the sovereignty of the people.
What is public opinion?
Popular Rule through Public Opinion.—We hear a good deal nowadays about public opinion. What is it? How is it ascertained? How does it make itself felt? In general, public opinion is the term which we apply to the predominating sentiment among the people. Public opinion is the sum-total of opinions held by individuals. It is not merely the snap-judgment of the majority, however, because intensity of belief is a factor which counts in determining it. Public opinion is a composite of numbers and intensity. A majority of the people may hold a certain belief upon any public question; but if they hold it lightly, without attaching much importance to it, we do not speak of their sentiment as public opinion. It is only when sentiment attains the earnestness of conviction that the term public opinion can be properly applied to it.
The channels through which it makes itself felt.
Public opinion, in this sense, is continually exerting pressure upon all branches of government in the United States. It finds expression through the editorial columns of newspapers, through resolutions adopted by societies and organizations, through letters from voters to their representatives in Congress and in the legislatures, and through the conversation of people wherever they are gathered together. The representatives of the people are ever on the alert to discern the drift of public opinion.[[24]] They desire to keep in touch with it. A capable representative always keeps his hand upon the public pulse. When public opinion undergoes a change, the attitude of the government swings with it, slowly perhaps, but inevitably. Public opinion is not easy to ascertain exactly, for it cannot be measured by any process of arithmetic. Some men are better at gauging it than others. One of the attributes of a successful politician is his ability to estimate public opinion accurately. When we say, therefore, that we have “government by public opinion”, we mean that those who are in authority are influenced and guided by it.