ABSTRACT
Progressive democracy demands not merely an increasing employment of the legislative power under representative executive leadership, but it also particularly needs an increase of administrative authority and efficiency. Increased administrative authority and efficiency is as necessary to any system of executive leadership as it is fatal to Congressional government by parties. A convinced opponent of the system of partisan government will do well to recognize one preliminary fact of decisive immediate importance. The enforced partisan loyalty of southern conservative Democrats may well enable progressive Democrats to prevent progressivism from undermining Democracy. Under American conditions a strong responsible and efficient administration of the law and of the public business would be fatal to partisan responsibility. The whole history of political and social reform in the United States could be cited as a proof of the way in which the partisan organizations adopted reforms only for the purpose of neutralizing them.
