Abstract
THE question as to whether parliamentary democracy can survive its present crisis and whether the rise of dictatorships in Italy, Germany and Russia does not indicate the decline of a long epoch of parliamentary government, is discussed by Mr. Herbert W. Stewart in an article in the Hibbert Journal (April, 1935). Mr. Stewart definitely rejects the modern scepticism, although he is far from denying many of the difficulties and real dangers involved in the parliamentary system, such as party intrigues, the corruption of the free but corruptible Press, the demagogic misuse of public institutions under parliamentary control. The unavoidable dilemma of this system seems to be that current affairs are run either by expert commissions, more or less on account of the initiative of the electorate and its parliamentary representatives—or by the masses themselves, and this involves the danger of delicate political matters becoming dependent on the issue of demagogical party activities and political bargainings.
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Despotic and Democratic Governments. Nature 136, 947 (1935). https://doi.org/10.1038/136947b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/136947b0