ABSTRACT
The International was to be a Union of the manual labourers of the world, having for its object to combine them as equal units in pure democratic action against one common foe—the ubiquitous oligarchy of the present employing classes. It was necessary that, like every other organisation, this world-wide democracy should have some central executive. This chapter explains a clear and temperate statement of what, in the minds of the leaders of modern revolutionary parties, the working conception of democracy has at last come to be. It considers how experience since the time of Proudhon has affected the theoretical as well as the practical views of the intellectual leaders of the democratic parties of to-day. Professor Robert Michels observes, the apathy of the large majority, which the democratic leaders at first found disconcerting, has now come to be viewed by them in a very different light.
