ABSTRACT
We have seen in the previous chapter that all elections with large electorates are in a sense indirect elections, because they depend to some extent on pre-selection of candidates by party organisations. There is nevertheless a great difference between this sort of operation and the idea of a pyramid of elections, in which the ordinary voter is at the base of the pyramid and the final choice of representatives is made by exalted persons several degrees above him. Under direct elections with a party system the candidates are chosen by relatively small groups of party members and party managers, but they are then submitted to the electorate as a whole; the final decision rests with the mass electorate, and there is in principle a direct relation between the voters and those who are elected. Under the other system the ordinary to vote in the second stage of the election; and the final choice may be made by a relatively small group, meeting privately and acting at two removes from those whom they are deemed to represent. There is no doubt which system is preferable, if one of the main objects of free elections is to promote a sense of general consent to and participation in the process of government.
