ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the character of the crisis in which capitalist democracy finds itself involved. The assumptions of capitalist democracy require universal suffrage; without it, there is illogic at the heart of the liberal state. But universal suffrage confers political power upon masses of citizens the greater part of whom is enfolded in a purely private life, and devoid of interest in, or knowledge of, the political process. If ever a history of parties in the modern state is written adequately, it will be one of the great books of the world. It will show a rapidity of party response to rapidly changing social conditions which is in every way remarkable. The place of the judiciary in a capitalist democracy is one of considerable complexity. In modern times, at least, the ideal of equality before the law has been one of the classic assumptions of a society built upon individualism and democracy.
