vention and this mechanism has been so perfected that it stands forth as the acme of a centralized political organi

zation.

In the United States a national election takes place every two years (in November) for the election of the Lower House of Congress and one-third the Upper House, or Senate. Every four years elections for the Presidency and the Vice-Presidency are also held, so that in the fourth year period the Congressional and Presidential elections are combined. Each party in the early summer preceding a Presidential election calls a national convention for the purpose of formulating a declaration of principles and policy, the so-called platform, and to nominate candidates for the two executive offices. Congressional nominations are made by direct primaries or conventions in the several States, and these are managed by State committees under the general supervision of a Congressional party caucus committee appointed every two years for that purpose. Each party manages its campaign through a central, or national, committee. This committee is named by a national convention made up of delegates from the commonwealths. These are appointed by direct primaries or by State conventions made up of elected delegates chosen in the first instance by the voters of the districts or townships of the commonwealth. In this way the national committee is theoretically supposed to voice the wishes and policy of the party voters themselves, and in its work uses as its agents the various local organizations existing in the several commonwealths. Its function, therefore, is threefold: (a) to coöperate with the States so as to secure a harmonious body of

Б

The formal election is made by the Electoral Colleges of the States on the second Monday in January.

workers down to the smallest precinct in the State; (b) to see that a platform is adopted and Presidential candidates named; and (c) to push the political campaign so as, if possible, to win the election at the polls in November. Because of the importance of Congressional elections the national parties become also State parties, and press their organization down to the primaries so as to control the several sets of delegates who ultimately will name the Congressional candidates.

This same method of organization, with local variations, holds true of the several States, in each of which there is a party state committee perfecting its organization, seeing to local platforms and the nomination of candidates and directing the campaign so as to elect the party candidates if possible.

The Three Contrasting Types.-These three types of political party organization represent practically the several systems of organization in use among developed nations. The American type is the most complex and the most highly organized and centralized, but the powers actually exercised by the organization are delegated by the voters themselves, who by theory indirectly name all leaders and policies. The French system shows the national party organization to be an artificial unity, made up frequently of discordant parts not always in full sympathy with their elected leaders in the Ministry. The real power lies in the departments and the local districts, in part controlled, however, by the influence of the administration and the Ministry in power.

The English system by contrast is aristocratic and takes its tone from the will of its national leaders, who have pushed themselves to the front and dictate policy to the districts. The opinions of local leaders, however,

must always be taken into account, in order that there may be cheerful and enthusiastic coöperation on their part with the national leadership and policy.

Regulation of Parties.-Parties are properly social organizations and not part of the legal machinery of the government. They originate or disband at the will of their members and are not mere creations of law. But so important are these modern organizations and so necessary for the successful performance of governmental functions, that their existence has become a necessity under modern conditions and they are in effect part of the unwritten constitution, since they are the formal means devised by democracies through which they express their will at elections. Admitting, as all must, the present necessity for such organizations, it becomes essential that public opinion should see to it that the means or agency devised for public purposes should not be made ends in themselves and perverted for selfish purposes and private gain. This tendency is especially marked in the United States where the mechanism developed is so efficient that if "politicians" by chance. should secure control of the "machine," they can pass to themselves and their friends an endless chain of offices, "graft" on public funds, and incidentally woefully mismanage public business."

As a check to such possibilities, using the United States as an example, under the pressure of public opinion, governments, national, state, and local, have little by little sought to regulate political parties so as to make them honest agencies as well as useful aids for the ex

An excellent study of corrupt methods, written in a style in imitation of Machiavelli's Prince, may be found in The Boss, by H. Champernowne.

pression of popular will. The extent of this regulation is worthy of notice. The government as a rule specifies the time, place, and manner of conducting elections, and regulates the primary or caucus." It regulates the system of nominations, fixes the form of the ballot and provides officers to supervise the polls and to count the ballots. It may even bear the expense of conducting primaries and polls, and usually legislates against corruption and bribery and limits the amount of legitimate expenses. By law it defines what are political parties, what persons may exercise suffrage privileges at the polls, and it may also define how party members must register so as to vote at the party primaries.

Obviously the extent of regulation will vary considerably in different states and commonwealths according to the needs of local situations, but the necessity of some regulation is so manifest that now no state which allows political parties to exist at all permits them to act without any regulation whatsoever. The regulations now so common in the political world illustrate the fact that any social organization, whose interests become of general importance, must submit to governmental regulation for the welfare of the state.

Proportional Representation.-As an illustration of one aspect of regulation attention may be called to requirements for minority or proportional representation, a system long advocated by reformers but largely neglected up to recent years because no system suggested seemed simple enough to be comprehensible to voters and

'The primary is the initial gathering of party voters to decide on candidates or measures. A non-partisan primary also is in use, for members of all parties. The term caucus is often used in the sense of a primary, but is more properly a gathering of party leaders or representatives for the formulation of a party policy.

readily applied by those in charge of the count. The theory back of the reform is that government by the majority, though far better than minority rule, is not so democratic as rule by all the people through their representatives. Minority or proportional representation seeks to accomplish this aim by providing a form of election in which any proper proportion of the electorate may be represented, in a legislature for example, by those who will voice its desires. This is considered to be a device for the improvement of legislatures, as an alternative to the direct method of the initiative and referendum.

8

Omitting reference to the many schemes suggested, each of which has or has had its supporters, a brief statement will be made of the two systems most favored— the preferential or Hare system and the Belgian system as worked out by Professor Victor d'Hondt, of the University of Ghent."

I. The Hare System.-In the preferential scheme each voter indicates his first, second, and other choices among the candidates for an office. In the count the officers in charge first ascertain the quota which each candidate must receive to entitle him to an election 10 and then count first choices only. Whenever a candidate receives a sufficient number of votes to entitle him to an election, he is declared elected and henceforth other ballots having his name as first choice are counted by taking their second choices, in this fashion wasting no votes. This method

See for many of these Commons, Proportional Representation, and John H. Humphries, Proportional Representation.

For detailed illustrations of this see Seymour and Frary, How the World Votes, vol. ii, Chap. XXIX to page 202.

10 This is done by dividing the whole number of votes cast by the number of offices to be filled.