ABSTRACT
The essence of the democratic method lies not in the counting of heads but in the submission of everything to discussion in which each has an equal right to state his case and an equal duty, in his own as well as in the social interest, to contribute his judgment. No form of government other than democracy leads to this reference back to the purposes of all, generalized through discussion into the nearest approach practically possible to a common denominator, and tested by criteria of rationality. Most students of politics today would be rightly suspicious of any such view that it is the function of political science to show that the majority is right in its values because it is the majority, or a minority because of its special nature. 'Natural' omnipotence is opposed by 'natural' rights to the non-exercise of omnipotence.
