ABSTRACT
The word 'democracy' has become ambiguous. East of the Elbe it means 'military dictatorship of a minority enforced by arbitrary police power'. West of the Elbe its meaning is less definite, but broadly speaking it means (even distribution of ultimate political power among all adults except lunatics, criminals, and peers'. This is not a precise definition, because of the word 'ultimate'. Suppose the British Constitution were to be changed in only one respect: that General Elections should occur once in thirty years instead of once in five. This would so much diminish the dependence of Parliament on public opinion that the resulting system could hardly be called a democracy. Many Socialists would ~dd economic to political power, as what demands even distribution in a democracy. But we may ignore these verbal questions. The essence of the matter is approach to equality of power, and it is obvious that democracy is a matter of degree.
