ABSTRACT
Democratic government confers on every voter a mite of political power; and that means, in Professor Leoni's significant phrase, 'the possibility for individuals of their personal choices being identified with the decisions of the groups to which they belong'.15 The effect of
this is to moralize politics, by making every individual a worthwhile object for a government's attention, and a person to whom reasons must be given when his claims are disappointed. The functions of a Member of Parliament illustrate this. On the one hand, he mediates between the governors and the governed, explaining and justifying in the hope of winning or retaining support; on the other, he interprets the needs and experience of the subject to the government, passing on grievances, pressing for redress, warning of discontent, and claiming attention for interests that are being overlooked. He is not, of course, the only channel. We have mentioned the importance of consultations between the government and organized sectional interests, which are now an essential part of the process of government in nearly all democracies. Such consultations are conducted not only by the informal methods of lobbying, but through formal institutious like the National Production Advisory Council in Britain and the Economic Council of the Fourth Republic.
