ABSTRACT

The central theme of this chapter focuses on the threat of counter-revolution. The counter-revolution is bound to be anti-democratic. For the purpose of democracy is to enlarge the number of those who share in the benefits of available welfare by enlarging the number of those to whom the rulers of a society are responsible. A democratic society seeks for peace; the counter-revolution is bound to make war. A democratic society is rational, constitutional, pushed, by its inner logic, to set freedom in the context of equality. The counter-revolution has to impose the habits of tyranny upon the world for the simple reason that it cannot look for consent to its purposes. The significant index to the nature of the counter-revolution is the methods by which, and by which alone, its exponents can extend their authority. Counter-revolution succeeds when a quite special set of historical circumstances have taken a deep hold of a people.