ABSTRACT
Progressive democracy needs executive leadership, because it accomplishes so effectively one very important object of democratic political organization. In the history of democratic political institutions there has never been any serious attempt made to contrive for the rule of the majority an efficient organization. The initiators might frequently be able to wear down or circumvent the opposition of a less able and tenacious majority. The friends of direct government do not pay enough attention to the fact that their proposed instruments of democracy entirely break down as agencies of majority rule. The particular function of representation by law in the traditional American system was to tie the hands of the majority and reduce it to insignificance in the management of public affairs. Public opinion requires to be aroused, elicited, informed, developed, concentrated and brought to an understanding of its own dominant purposes.
